The question "Who is Jill Scott?" has been posed. What do you make of a Philadelphia-born woman whose mother, upon first seeing her daughter, envisioned an exclamation point behind her chosen name-- thus: "Jill!" What do you make of a woman who, years ago, recognized and named her alter-ego Ami, without realizing it was I Am spelled backwards? A decisive woman who respects talent but favors soul. What we know of Jill Scott is that she carries her spine straight: confidence, high spirits, risen and pure.
Who Is Jill Scott? It is an honestly erotic and animatedly sweet album, enigmatic, speaking in the tongues of both poetry and song, Jill ScottΓÇÖs timbre is refreshingly controlled yet exploring, restless and free! Her articulation is clear and patient, toying with space and time. Featuring production talents DJ Jazzy Jeff, James Poyser and A Touch Of Jazz Productions, as well as the writing of hers truly, Who Is Jill Scott? seeks to establish a multifaceted artist with real, feeling stories to tellΓÇönot just words on paper. Jill clarifies: "These words have soul, conviction, and women behind them."
Jill is releasing two singles, the street single "Love Rain" while radio receives the real Philadelphia soul single "Getting In The Way," which Jill describes as a mature womanΓÇÖs point of view when it comes to telling another woman to let her man go. "You know, like, look. Please donΓÇÖt make me cut you," Jill pleads. "I am praying here."
There is a subtle, alive beauty to Who Is Jill Scott? especially when she acts out her stories. "A Long Walk" is the story of how she and her fiancé Lyzel fell in love. It’s a slow, effortless, swing, one of Jill’s most range-revealing, effortless tracks. But it’s on the interlude, "I Think It’s Better," that Jill is honoring the difficult, trying to tell a seasonal lover that she’s found her lifetime. "It’s so hard for me to say this/I’m strugglin’ to find the right words/…What I felt is past tense/What I felt you just haven’t heard…"
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There are inevitableΓÇö and flattering ΓÇö comparisons to everyone from Betty Carter to Erykah Badu. "Comparisons? I laugh at them," Jill says, and then does. A light, free laugh. "A really important part of my work is that everybody have their own power. We donΓÇÖt follow like sheep. Every child has their own." (Ami rising.)
Jill Scott was raised and lives in north Philadelphia, the city that feels like a town and loves you back. The memory of her grandmother, Blue Babe, soft singing in the morning, sustains Jill. "She would take a bath at five every morning and you would hear this real back porch hum…" From some deep, throaty place, Jill recollects, "MMmm-hmmm. HmmMM," the sound of cross-armed deacons and Mahalia Jackson. "We would gather at the door and listen," Jill continues. "My mother would cry."
While Jazzy Jeff and Fresh Prince rocked Central High School parties and the Roots were street performers, Jill was reading poetry at the local art spot, October Gallery. Here the crowds were growing and Jill was starting to hear things. "Sounds," she says. "Sounds in the words. Eventually some parts would be spoken, some sung." Roots drummer Amir (Brother Questlove) caught JillΓÇÖs performance and told producer Scott Storch. The band invited Jill into the studio one night; she came and wrote in five minutes what would be the lyrics to "You Got Me." Amir called Jill the next day to say the song would be their first single. The track, which would be sung by Erykah Badu, went on to garner the Roots a 1999 Grammy Award for best rap performance (duo or group).
Since then, Jill Scott has toured with the Canadian cast of Rent, as well as collaborated with the Roots, Eric Benet (on a remix of his track "When You Think Of Me"), Will Smith ("The Rain" from Willenium) and Common ΓÇö both on his album Like Water For Chocolate and the single "8 Minutes To Sunrise" from the Wild Wild West soundtrack. In conjunction with Eastman Kodak, she asked junior high school students from across the country to take pictures of what it is to try.
As for the answer to the question Who Is Jill Scott? ask Jill herself. "I donΓÇÖt know how to call it. I canΓÇÖt really put me in any parameters," she says. "I didnΓÇÖt want to be in anybodyΓÇÖs box. My hairΓÇÖs not permed, IΓÇÖm not skinny, I ainΓÇÖt got a big ass -- what we gonΓÇÖ do with her? Well," she says with bright, discerning eyes, "we can do this, this, this this, and this. How you like that?"
