Fridae

Who Is Jill Scott? Words And Sounds
Vol. 1 by Jill Scott

Jill Scott was horribly "misrepresented" when she performed with Moby at the 43rd Grammies. Not only was this new queen of "poetic soul" given a miniscule role in singing what little there was for the electronic-saturated "Natural Blues", but the whole set up looked like an extravagant Intel Pentium commercial with those campy blue people running around her.

With her "Best New Artist" nomination, I had expected the veritable Jill Scott to at least perform a track from her sumptuous debut to show the world what she had in her. I guess I'll just have to let this hideous faux pas slip this time.

I really don't know where to start in introducing Jill Scott-It's better off to let the album guide you. A good start would be the first track "Jilltro", where she explains the rest of the album: "I love to write poetry, I love to sing." Putting prose poetry into music and turning music into poetry is what she does best.

Take a listen to "He Loves Me (Lyzel In E Flat)" and you'll see how she makes "You love me from my hair follicles to my toenails" sound so exquisite. Or take note on how she tells off her lover's ex-girlfriend to give up on him before she drags her in the middle of the street to whoop her ass for all its $5.99 value�priceless.

If that's not your cup of tea, stimulate yourself with verbal elations from "A Long Walk", and find out why she wants to talk about Surah 31:18.

If you thought Erykah Badu's Baduizm was exceptional, then you barely scratched the surface of what Jill Scott has to offer.