Queen with no crown hits a chart-topping home run
SCOTT. Eventful 15-year career.
JILL SCOTT drew the ire of netizens when she defiantly defended the embattled Bill Cosby in a series of tweets over allegations of sexual assaults. But, it’s hard to ignore the heartbreaking accounts of 35 of the revered funnyman’s alleged victims, who recently came together to pose for the striking cover of the July-August issue of New York Magazine.
When records of a 2005 court deposition emerged, in which Cosby admitted under oath that he procured a powerful hypnotic and sedative to lure women into having sex with him, Scott quickly withdrew her support for her 78-year-old mentor—because, as she explained in succeeding tweets, “the sworn testimony is proof. (I’m) completely disgusted!”
This week, Jilly from Philly is getting some love back from her followers—and hits a chart-topping home run with the release of her fifth studio album, “Woman,” which debuts at No. 1 on the Billboard 200.
It’s a satisfying neosoul collection that fuses sophisticated R&B music with spoken word and poetry (“Willing,” “Pause”), soul, country and hip-hop.
Informed by romance, heartbreak and motherhood, the 16-track set brims with honesty and breezy candor as Scott sings about a relationship that isn’t meant to be (“Fool’s Gold”), love for a faithless man (the funky “Closure”) and the heady ambiguities of loving (the breathtaking “Cruisin’”).
Scott is even harder to resist when she discusses hustling her way through life to provide for her beleaguered man (the Motown-inspired “Run, Run, Run” and the ethereal midtempo track, “Lighthouse”) and romantic dates (“Coming To You,” notable for its unshakable hooks).
If you’re partial to dreamy ballads, you can’t go wrong with “Jahraymecofasola,” featuring a soothing rendition guaranteed to sweep music lovers off their feet, and the dreamy makeout track, “Beautiful Love,” her groovesome duet with BJ the Chicago Kid—about relishing quality time with her man as “fireflies light up the night air during a new moon!”
Unlike Aretha Franklin (Queen of Soul), Rihanna (R&B Princess) and Erikah Badu (Queen of Neosoul), Scott doesn’t have a “royal” appellation attached to her name.
But, with avid followers who swear by her commanding musical artistry, this queen requires no crown!
After all, who needs a throne if you have the No. 1 album on Tinseltown’s most important pop chart?
