Scott, Jill

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Jill Scott

Singer

Singer, poet, and songwriter Jill Scott burst onto the neosoul/R&B scene in a blaze of glory following the release of her double platinum-selling debut album, Who Is Jill Scott? Words and Sounds, Vol. 1, in 2000. RollingStone.com writer Toure called Scott "the premier female romantic voice of the neosoul era." The notoriously down-to-earth Philadelphia native found herself awash in Grammy Award nominations, appeared onstage with soul diva Aretha Franklin on VH-1, and opened for rock star Sting on his North American tour. But the sudden onslaught of success did not go to her head. Writer Clarence Waldron summed it up in Jet when he declared that "Jill Scott is as real and honest as her down-home soul music. She is well-grounded and down-to-earth—despite her newfound stardom."

Scott was raised by her mother, Joyce Scott, and her grandmother, Blue Babe, in North Philadelphia. "She was a very loved child," Joyce Scott told Toure, a fact that Scott herself readily acknowledged. She remembered protective teenage boys in the neighborhood looking out for her, making sure she got home safely. Many of those boys, she recalled sadly to Sonia Sanchez in Essence, died from gunshot wounds. She later donated money for a computer lab to the elementary school she attended as a girl. She grew up listening to her grandmother humming tunes around the kitchen. She had very little formal vocal training, but spent years listening to artists who inspired her singing style. She credited singers like Sarah Vaughan, Donnie Hathaway, Minnie Riperton, and opera star Leontyne Price for influencing her vocal sound. "I listened and I went to a class that included all that I needed to learn," Scott told Sanchez. "I wanted to learn voice techniques, how to breathe. I wanted to learn how to use the tools, but I didn't want them to take over and crush the spirit."

Scott began her career as a poet while studying to become a high school English teacher at Temple University. When she first worked with children, Scott helped them learn how to spell by making up songs. The kids loved it, but her supervising teachers wrote her off as young and idealistic. Frustrated with her studies at Temple, Scott also pursued acting. At first she had balked when a friend suggested she should act, but when her first attempts were enjoyable and successful, she dropped out of school to take an apprenticeship with a theater company. She ultimately landed a role in the Canadian touring production of the hit Broadway musical Rent. She worked a number of jobs to make ends meet during those struggling years. She did manual labor on a theater construction site, scooped ice cream, and cleaned toilets—anything that left her time to write and wasn't a typical nine-to-five office job. Scott was one among a number of promising Philadelphia poets who regularly recited their poems, hummed songs, and rapped at gatherings in small venues around the city, like the October Gallery. "They were live, on-time, exciting, and on a mission to be heard," Sanchez wrote in Essence.

Once she decided to pursue a singing career, Scott contacted producer and DJ Jeff Townes—also known as Jazzy Jeff from his work with Fresh Prince Will Smith—and recorded seven songs with him. Her real break came when Ahmir Khalib Thompson, the drummer for the Roots who was also known as ?uestlove, heard Scott at one of her poetry performances. He invited her into the studio with the band, and she wound up co-writing the top 40 hit "You Got Me." The song earned a Grammy Award for Best Rap Performance for the Roots and Erykah Badu in 1999. Scott later collaborated with Will Smith on Willennium and with Common on Like Water for Chocolate. Her songs were also heard on a number of soundtracks, including those for the films Down to Earth, Kingdom Come, In Too Deep, and Wild, Wild West.

Scott's debut release, Who Is Jill Scott? Words and Sounds, Vol. 1, was also the debut release for Hidden Beach, an upstart record label co-owned by basketball legend Michael Jordan. Scott's voice on the album was at times soothing and soulful, and she also occasionally used scat singing and the spoken word, recalling her poetry-jam days. Of her lyrics, she told Waldron, "These words have soul, conviction and woman behind them." Toure wrote in RollingStone.com, "The album is romantic soul music cool enough for the hip-hop generation and mature enough for our mothers." Although the media squeezed her comfortably into the "neosoul" R&B genre, Scott's description of her sound was more expressive: "I would definitely call it soul, because that's where it comes from, that's where the singing comes from, that's where the lyrics come from," she told Waldron. "It's a combination of jazz, R&B, country, hip hop, opera. It's every genre of music that I've ever heard." Scott initially released two singles from the album. "Love Rain," featuring rapper Mos Def, was an underground hit, while "Getting in the Way" found its way onto MTV and mainstream radio. For her effort, Scott received three Grammy Award nominations: Best New Artist, Best R&B Female Vocal Performance, and Best R&B Album of the Year.

Although she was featured on People magazine's list of the "50 Most Beautiful People in the World" in 2001, the singer went to great lengths to resist the pressures of the media to be thin and clad in designer clothes. She maintained her natural image—that of a healthy, happy woman who eats what she wants and wears what she chooses to wear. "We live in a society that says you have to be thin, you have to have a certain kind of hair and you have to have these expensive clothes to be considered attractive. Intelligence is third or fourth," she told Sanchez. "My intent has been to show myself completely and not hide behind the masks of fancy clothing, a lot of makeup, lots of jewelry."

After being sidelined briefly with a lung infection, Scott launched her own 27-city tour in the summer of 2001. She was backed by veteran jazz musicians, many of whom had performed with the likes of Roy Ayers, Anita Baker, and Aretha Franklin. These musicians gave Scott the support she needed to explore her talent onstage, and the result was a series of highly acclaimed live shows. After watching Scott in concert, singer Erykah Badu told Toure, "She's real sympathetic about humanity and the way that people treat other people. And her music takes me back to the grass roots. It's simple, whimsical, very dreamy. She sounds more like a horn than a singer. She makes me cry. She makes me feel me." In a shocking turn, Scott missed a string of tour dates when she temporarily lost 85 percent of her hearing in her right ear. She was diagnosed with Sudden Deafness Syndrome (S.D.S.).

For the Record …

Born c. 1972 in Philadelphia, PA; married Lyzel Williams (a graphic designer and deejay), 2001 (divorced). Education: Studied secondary education at Temple University.

Performed readings of her own poetry in North Philadelphia, early 1990s; toured Canada with Broadway musical Rent; co-wrote top 40 hit "You Got Me" with the Roots, 1999; collaborated with 4hero, Eric Benet, Common, Kenny Lattimore, and Will Smith; released debut album Who Is Jill Scott? Words and Sounds, Vol. 1, 2000; completed 27-city solo tour, 2001; released live double album Experience: Jill Scott 826+, 2002; released Beautifully Human: Words and Sounds, Vol. 2, 2004, and The Real Thing: Words and Sounds, Vol. 3, 2007.

Awards: Soul Train Awards, Aretha Franklin Award for Entertainer of the Year, Best R&B/Soul Single for "A Long Walk," R&B/Soul Album of the Year for Who Is Jill Scott?, Best R&B, Soul, or Rap New Artist, 2001; Grammy Awards: Best Urban/Alternative Performance, for "Cross My Mind," 2004; Best Traditional R&B Vocal Performance (with George Benson and Al Jarreau), for "God Bless the Child," 2006.

Addresses: Record company—Hidden Beach Records, 3030 Nebraska Ave., Penthouse Ste., Santa Monica, CA 90404.Web site—Jill Scott Official Web site: http://www.jillscott.com/.

Scott released Experience: Jill Scott 826+, a two-disc live album, in 2002. The first disc was a blend of Scott favorites, recorded live primarily in Washington, D.C., on the 2001 tour. The songs included "A Long Walk," "One Is the Magic #," and "He Loves Me (Lyzel in E Flat)." A People critic commented that the disc "actually improves upon" the studio-recorded versions found on Who Is Jill Scott? Words and Sounds, Vol. 1. The second disc featured ten previously unreleased songs, including "Gotta Get Up," "High Post Brotha," and "Gimme." The People critic noted that the new material "doesn't quite measure up" to her older work.

Scott returned in 2004 with Beautifully Human: Words and Sounds, Vol. 2, her second studio album. As with Who Is Jill Scott?, the album mixed jazz, soul, funk, and hip-hop in a series of poetic songs. When asked why she had waited four years to record her follow-up effort, Scott told OneDropRule.org: "I held out until I couldn't stand it anymore. The songs started waking me up and came to me during dinner or while I was in the tub or on walks. They weren't just one lyric here and there. They were complete songs. My hope was to make an album that was equally as good, but in a different way."

Beautifully Human was, like its predecessor, warmly received by the critics. "It's seamless in its construction, unlittered in its production, honestly and elegantly articulated in its poetic soul, and utterly intoxicating in its groove consciousness," wrote Thom Jurek in All Music Guide. Beautifully Human rose to number three on the Billboard 200 and number one on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart.

Scott surprised fans in 2007 with The Real Thing: Words and Sounds, Vol. 3, an emotionally raw album that focused on the end of her relationship with her husband. "Her voice knows what every single emotion and feeling she sings about should sound like," wrote Isabelle Davis in WERS, "and as a result each of The Real Thing's fifteen cuts stand on their own as concrete slices of her psyche, but also manage to blend together to form a lush, smooth, bittersweet and therapeutic ride through the past year of her life."

Besides her work as a songwriter and singer, Scott also continued to write poetry, publishing The Moments, The Minutes, The Hours in 2005. She also won a Grammy Award in 2006 (with George Benson and Al Jarreau) for a vocal version of "God Bless the Child."

Speaking of her motivation as an artist, Scott told OneDropRule.org, "I really like to smile. I want to do things in my life that make my pores smile, and my nose and teeth smile. And when I feel that glow, I feel so much closer to God."