Folks who know me know that I’m not the biggest Jill Scott fan.
Her sister girl coffeehouse persona always struck me as, well, like every sister girl you see in a coffeehouse. On top of that, her songs are beautifully orchestrated abstraction that work only in so much as the coffeehouse persona sells them, not because the words actually mean anything.
In other words, bad spoken word set to really good music (shout out to James Poyser!).
And yet, I do like Jill Scott and respect her as an artist with a vision (even though that vision, more times than not, bores me to tears). More importantly, over time, Jill has started to show more and more of who she is hiding underneath all that Philly Soul pretension. Her third album works better than her other two + the live album combined because the songs are about something (sex, anger and sadness…YES!) personal and specific.
That said this video shows the side of Jill I really want to see more of.
The crowd gets rude, Jill keeps her composure.
The crowd continues to be rude, Jill drops the pretense and tells them to “shut the fuck up!”
Now that’s what I’m talkin bout, Jilly!
More on Jill Scott
My review of Beautifully Human
You know…I just can’t get into Jill Scott like that. I think that she lost me after that long walk song.