Who Is Jill Scott?: Words and Sounds, Vol. 1

1	Jilltro 1:03
2	Do You Remember 4:43
3	Exclusively 2:05
4	Gettin' in the Way 3:56
5	A Long Walk 4:40
6	I Think It's Better 1:42
7	He Loves Me (Lyzel in E Flat) 4:45
8	It's Love 5:54
9	The Way 4:15
10	Honey Molasses 2:41
11	Love Rain 4:12
12	The Roots (Interlude) 0:57
13	Slowly Surely 4:35
14	One Is the Magic # previously unreleased 3:49
15	Watching Me 3:48
16	Brotha 3:27
17	Show Me 4:11
18	[Untitled Track] 0:05
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44	Try Bonus Track 10:07

Barnes & Noble

Home to soul legends such as Patti Labelle, the O'Jays, and Teddy Pendergrass and hip-hoppers the Roots and Eve, Philadelphia has long been a crucible for urban music. The latest to emerge from this creative outpost is singer, songwriter, and poet Jill Scott, whose self-assured debut brings a fresh, young urban female perspective to modern soul music. Much like earthy songbirds Angie Stone and Erykah Badu (who sang the memorable Scott-penned hook on the Roots' Grammy award-winning single "You Got Me"), Scott embodies the neo-soul aesthetic, complete with her natural locks and syncopated delivery. On Who Is Jill Scott?, Scott's thoughtful and often raw prose floats atop the Fender Rhodes riffs, funky bass lines, and romantic strings that permeate the album. While deeply entrenched in the R&B vein, Scott's vocal style carries a healthy dose of jazz inflections (Roy Ayers' "No Stranger to Love" is sampled on the bass-heavy "Watching Me"). A woman of many moods, Scott shows her softer side on the live-sounding, go-go inspired track "It's Love." And on "I Think It's Better" and "He Loves Me (Lyzel In E Flat)," Scott's imploring soprano echoes the quiet strength of Faith Evans, as her remembrances of a special loved one unfold. But on the bluesy first single "Gettin' in the Way," Scott proves that she's no joke when it comes to her man, with fightin' words like "You better back down before you get smacked down." After one listen to this brilliant debut, no self-respecting soul lover will wonder who Jill Scott is. She's a rare and honest talent. Marlynn Snyder

All Music Guide

Though start-up label Hidden Beach and its manufacturer/distributor Sony may have been hoping for another Lauryn Hill in this eloquent young African-American from a Middle Atlantic state, Jill Scott turns out to be something of a hip-hop Patti Smith, a street poet who, on her first album, hasn't quite made the transition from spoken word performances to music, despite an excellent singing voice. With any luck, she will retain her sense of the power of words, since the best parts of this album are the ones when she lets fly, drunk on her verbal virtuosity. Producer Jeff Townes (of DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince fame) and his team of associates from the A Touch of Jazz production company set up sympathetic musical backgrounds for Scott that support her without requiring her to fit her spoken and sung excursions into strict meter. That gives her range to pursue her interests, which include a strong sense of her north Philadelphia neighborhood and such idiosyncratic concerns as food, with many meals listed in detail. But the album has a story to tell, and for the most part it is a love story. Scott describes a relationship from many different angles, including an encounter with her boyfriend's ex in a super market ("Exclusively") and her warnings to that girl (or some other) to stay away ("Gettin' in the Way"). She also breaks painfully from an old boyfriend in favor of the new one ("I Think It's Better"), but mostly she celebrates the relationship ("A Long Walk," "He Loves Me (Lyzel in E Flat)," "It's Love," "The Way"). But with "Honey Molasses," things turn sour, and on "Love Rain" and "Slowly Surely," she frees herself, concluding that "One Is the Magic #" and toward the end of the album moving on to social concerns with "Watching Me" and "Brotha." This narrative structure gives Scott ample room to express a variety of emotions and to display her "verbal elation." Like many poets, she sometimes delights in a torrent of words for their own sake, but it's hard to fault her when the result is such a fully articulated world view. There is no existing slot in R&B/hip-hop into which this album fits, which only means a new one will have to be created. (The CD marks a new complexity in the use of bonus and hidden tracks. After the 17th track, "Show Me," there are 26 four-second blank tracks, followed by a 44th track, the bonus song, "Try." One minute after this song ends, there is a hidden selection, an alternate version of "Love Rain" that features Mos Def.) William Ruhlmann