There’s no other songstress I am more attracted to than Jill Scott. She resembles an out-in-the-open persona in her musicality. She is the afro-haired girl you always wanted to walk in the park with. She is the girl who writes poetry that you always wanted hang out with and listen to Mozart with. She is fly – in every sense. She resembles a persona of a thinker, party girl, great lover, the girl in the choir who is centre attention, loving sister, and a good cook. But let’s not forget, that’s my fictitious view of Jilly from Philly.
Let’s move on from my illusionary ways.
Jill Scott is about to release her The Light of the Sun in a few days. From her outset album, Who is Jill Scott? Words and Sounds Vol 1. which was a breakthrough for all dem peeps who saw a distorted image of “our black sisters” in media, this album is a much more less-of-drama, maybe just chilled, keeping the momentum of her status of a queen of a genre of the neo-soul-and-the-poetry. It had been a while, since Aretha Franklin and mama Miriam Makeba, since we had seen a she-sister in pop-media reflecting a flair in style and word of your sister from hood (ikasi). So here she was, in a video, a regular and full figured girl walking in the hood and singing out that she wants to take a walk with me (well, maybe not me. But it felt like she was speaking to me, since I could relate). Now that was a relief. Not a hoochie-mama, not a dance queen, no heavy make-up… just an everyday sista from next door.
The new album doesn’t outdo, her debut, but it involves you into her journey of romance, and intimacy. Less drama but more affirmed in her state of being, in the lyrics and prose it seems there is a more of an oozing of confidence and re-affirmation of her artistry. There is also a depth of vulnerability and weakness. The transparency is so apparent that in Some Other Time, we get a glimpse of her failed marriage.
The quality of her sound is maintained. Twinkling sounds dripping everywhere, the hip-hop beat ever-present and romance the subliminal reasoning behind each mood of each track, (even the upbeat stuff).
Highlight, is the piano-ballad, Hear my Call, which draws you closer to the breaths between her phrasing. In this one, Jill is in a church building, beseeching a grace that’s sure, revealing her failings and asking for an answer from a God. Jill is once again our sista, keeping it real. Not fronting, not hiding but saying it’s okay to be disappointed in love’s journey, happy to move on, yet still in a reflective tone.
There was a time where I wanted to be Jilly from Philly (thank God that phase is over). Her poetry allures me. She is of course undoubtably beautiful, not plastic at all… charming lady that.
I am sure you just fine the way you are under your skin.