Curious as to how this tandem snagged MJB for Survival Skills ? Well, according to Buckshot, his relationship with the Queen of Hip-Hop Soul is deeper than rap.

Former Black Moon frontman Buckshot said getting Mary J. Blige on his new single wasn’t about money — it was about friendship. Buck and the Queen of Hip-Hop Soul go back to the ’90s, when Buck’s artists and Boot Camp Clik members Smif-N-Wessun rapped on the remix to MJB’s “I Love You.” The two have been cool ever since.

“One of the last times I saw her before this song was in front of Sony studios,” Buck remembered. “Me and Mary played a game of basketball right in front of Sony studios. You know how you would be in front of your building and you would use the wall as a hoop? So me and Mary was literally on the sidewalk just playing ball, bugging out. Mary, she really is Mary J. Blige. She’s ‘hood, she’s elegant, she’s real.