JILL SCOTT

Jill Scott is an artist with an abiding, deep commitment to lyrical honesty and musical integrity. Simply put, if Jill feels it, she writes and sings it. While vivid imagery, metaphor analogy are her stock in trade, there's no pretense, no hiding. She's upfront, in-your-face always real, using her own distinctive poetry to breathe life into words, digging inside to bring forth the accompanying emotion.

It is that authenticity that has endeared Jill Scott to everyday music buyers who hear what she's saying through her music and respond according. Folks who know the rough and tumble of life, love right, love wrong, passion misspent, passion fulfilled, lonely nights and empty days and everything in between declare, 'Yeah, girl!,' 'Go 'head on!' and 'I feel ya'.

And in the tradition of the four albums that precede it, THE REAL THING is another cause for celebration for those who live for the real.

While Jazzy Jeff and Fresh Prince rocked Central High School parties and The Roots were street performers, Jill was reading poetry at the Philadelphia art spot, October Gallery. Here, the crowds were growing and Jill was starting to hear things. "Sounds," she says. "Sounds in the words. Eventually some parts would be spoken, some sung." Roots drummer Amir (Brother Questlove) caught Jill's performance and told producer Scott Storch. The band invited Jill into the studio one night; she came and wrote in five minutes what would be the lyrics to "You Got Me." Amir called Jill the next day to say the song would be their first single. The Track, which would be sung by Erykah Badu, went on to garner The Roots a 1999 Grammy Award for Best Rap Performance (Duo or Group).

Then and since, Jill Scott has toured with the Canadian cast of Rent as well as collaborated with The Roots, Eric Benet (with a remix of his track "When You Think Of Me"), Will Smith ("The Rain" from "Willennium") and "Common"—both on his album, "Like Water for Chocolate" and the single "8 Minutes to Sunrise" from the "Wild, Wild West" soundtrack.