The day that I saw Jill Scott was a couple of days after my birthday last year. This was a review and blog that I was supposed to put up after I recorded it. Yet life began to happen and I began to succumb to its ways. Let’s just call it Recession meets Tragedy, moving along.
A beautiful summer day that began with me thinking that I was going to see Jill Scott for free in the Wyngate Park turned into a hectic day of driving all over NY. I was late for a line that I knew was going to circle blocks and blocks. I tend be a person that lives in her lateness but luckily I have a bomb ass friend named Kali (note: she’s from Oakland) who makes it to every event before it’s even close to starting. (God Bless her soul sweet Jesus!)
I get there to see the line is wrapped twice around the universe kissing the Gods and to find Kali is an absolute mission. When I get the call that she’s somewhere at the front of the line I became elated.
New problem: Getting to the front of a mob of black people on line to see a free Jill Scott show in BROOKLYN… is nooooooo easy task. As I explain to security that I was already on the line and made my way through it, I get to my true obstacle. It’s a big burly butch black woman with a gang of people who appears to have lawn chairs on the line and seemed beyond intimidating. Now, I’m a lover not a fighter but I’ve thrown down some mean punches in my day. This day however, doesn’t look like the possible day to do such stupidities. As I listen quietly to her rants on how no one’s walking through her, I call Kali whom I am feet away from to explain the horridness. She began to laugh and we angled a way for me to slide through the barricade because there was a bar missing. Soon as I made it through, all was well with the world. And that, my friends is the instructions on cutting a line in BK.
The line didn’t move for an hour because the gates weren’t opened yet. I sat with Kali and gave her a new hairstyle with all that time.
Finally we’re moving. Once we got inside, the chairs began to fill up sooooo fast that I knew there was no way that we were going to be able to get as close as we were for Erykah Badu's show from last week. This group of people also looked very different from last week’s group where it was a flee of young beautiful elite black folks who appeared to have nice shoes and no children. This week there were grandmothers, fat people and all their children including boxes of Chinese food to hold down the teams of ghetto phi ghetto. Hmmm.
The show’s starting and Jill is so damn inviting as she utters her first words. I swear. It was like having her perform in our living room. Two huge screens were on stage for the thousands who couldn’t possibly see her little body from all the way in the back and she began singing “The Real Thing”.
As the music began it felt as if the sun was setting in its most beautiful glory and before I knew it, it was gone. As Jill sat there singing it boggled me that the entire slew of people appeared to know all the words to a song that was never released but was the opener on her latest album. It made me realize that this audience adapted to Jill more in many ways as opposed to Erykah. It was slightly shocking yet understandable. As the music began to simmer down Jill allowed herself to get so acquainted with the crowd that by the end of the song they were off their feet.
She took intervals to explain the details of songs by just getting playful and real so that just in case you weren’t listening… she’d explain it to you in Lyman’s terms. Funny, quirky, lovable and just down to earth was the way that I would explain this show came off right from the start.
What made this show so real and full of depth was that the world had just lost two icons in the same weekend. It was Bernie Mac and Isaac Hayes. She gave tribute to them and the show just moved seamlessly.
Respect also has to be given to talent where talent is worked! She had ChinahBlac as one of her back up singers who is also well known in the R&B world as a ‘sista’ to be reckoned with. She’s sung back up for Erykah as well in the past. Recently I've spotted her in NYC holding down R&B shows at SOB's where she is the headliner. She's on twitter at @ChinahBlac. Jill also had Dwayne Wright a.k.a. DW, who is an awesome bass player and a good friend of mine. He’s worked with the likes of the awesome Teedra Moses and the fabulous Alicia Keys to name a few.
Now there’s no need to forget that the truth of the matter is that I am at a show that I myself would like to enjoy so recording every bit of it wasn’t gonna happen. Stopping people from walking in front of me wasn’t optional and killing the baby from crying behind me was slightly tangible. At the end of it all I believe the evening worked itself out without any arrests.
The fact is one can only truly appreciate an artist in their full realm when the artist expresses themselves in a way that relates to the listener. Jill says “This song is for everybody in relationships. It takes 2 halves to make a whole. You know what I’m saying?” Love songs are the epitome of Jill’s stories when she sings to the masses. We love her because we relate.
To love in that way becomes somewhat of a euphoric feeling as the lights dim and her voice radiates through the crowd of admirers. We all of a sudden remember who we were with when the songs came out and emotions intensify the delight and sometimes heartaches. None the less it’s nothing short of pulchritude when it comes to watching Jill Scott along with live instrumentation, lights and a stage.
The importance of who Jill Scott is to the Hip Hop culture is not something to be taken lightly. Many (or maybe not so many) forget that she was introduced to the world by The Legendary Roots Crew. She's also helped get them a Grammy when she wrote the hook for the song, “You Got Me”(which was sung by Erykah Badu). Who Jill is as she relates to hip hop is a being who can appreciate her past. In the next piece she gives tribute to De La Soul and truly… how can you mention hip hop groups without they’re name coming up?
The inspiration that Jill gives to woman with her words of growth and movement makes all women proud to be who we are. As a black woman our pride can stand next to a man’s and still be misunderstood. Yet I think in the delivery of her next performance I believe the crowd understood the importance of black women to our civilization. I love her for that.
It should be mandatory to have the lessons on the stories of what life is as it is depicted through music. Those moments represent the world's history. Having a gift that is as great as Jill’s or Lauryn Hill's or Michael Jackson's and not using it to (sorry for the cliché) 'Heal the World’ could do the world more harm than good. Inspiration begets inspiration. These are the feelings and emotions that come over me as I see and hear Jill. Who would we be if we didn’t share our talents? Well… it shouldn’t be an option.
And as we rounded out the night she finished with letting the audience know that she was not going to perform this particular song anymore. Of course without hesitation I knew it was “He Loves Me (Lyzel in E Flat)”. One her most famous songs to date that came off her first album from 8 yrs ago, she wasn’t going to perform anymore?
Jill Scott in currently working on the sequel to Tyler Perry’s “Why Did I Get Married”. During the taping of the first movie she was going through a divorce from Lyzel and during this performance she was pregnant with someone else's child who remains nameless. She was never one to truly have the spotlight thrown on her business. To us, the audience, hearing “He Loves Me” is like a sentiment of all the love we could process and may have with the love of our life. I know hearing it for the first time personally for me was like understanding that caterpillars do change into butterflies and there’s an extreme beauty in that. But for Jill it’s probably not that. It probably brings back moments that she has to remember yet she would like to grow pass. But that’s just my preconceived notion so who knows…
Inevitably at the end of the show she performed another song that I took for face value as the most motivating and inspirational thing I’d heard that week thus far ( I did just see E. Badu a week before and she’s pretty inspiring too). It was a song that she’d written the night before about believing in your dreams. Melodic and soothing and pure was the thoughts that came to mind as I watched her from the closest view I’d had all night.
My flash wasn’t working (it was what it was yet i felt you needed to see how much closer I got) but as I looked at her and heard her words ring so loud and clear to me I knew that it was important to get back to work. And since MJ’s passing I vowed to be the best me I could be. There’s much growing to prosper here.
Peace
JwaStar*
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