Jill Scott Says She Was Told To 'Lose Weight & Straighten Her Hair
Getting In The Way: Jill Scott Was Told To Lose Her Copious Curves & Straighten Her Neo-Soul Strands Before Releasing Her Debut Album
Jill Scott may be loved “especially different” by fans, but that same admiration apparently wasn’t extended to her by an exec who thought her look was getting in the way of her success.
Fresh off the release of To Whom This May Concern, her first album in over a decade, Jilly from Philly is taking it back 26 years, when she was trying to break into the industry.
According to the “He Loves Me” sonsgtress, she was urged to conform to a more commercial look by a record exec who thought her copious curves, coils and kinks, would hinder her career.
“I had somebody tell me in the beginning of my career that if I didn’t lose weight, or if I didn’t straighten my hair or whatever, that I’d never sell any records,” she told People. “That sucked, but luckily I didn’t listen to them and decided to just continue to be myself.”
I’m a Black woman, and I love it. It’s revolutionary to be comfortable in your own skin,” she added, while discussing one of her new tracks, “Pressha,” which features lyrics about self love.
Jilly, of course, didn’t listen to negativity about her look, and the result was a double platinum debut album titled Words and Sounds Vol. 1, which gave the world hits like “He Loves Me,” “Gettin In The Way,” “A Long Walk,” and “The Way.” With over 25 million records sold since then, everyone’s favorite soul vocalist has proven that she was always more than enough.
“My mother and I had a rough go of it in the beginning…We were in a community where you would hear gunshots on a regular basis. There was a summer when I lost a lot of friends, young men that I knew. My mother taught me to keep looking for beauty no matter what. I just kept finding a reason to believe in myself, to have some joy and create joy around me,” she said about her ability to alchemize pain into beauty and triumph.
Though Jill’s music never left our rotation, it’s been lovely to have new songs to add to the collection of her tracks that speak to the soul. She has given us some of our favorite TV and film moments in the years since her last musical release. Her lead roles in everything from Tyler Perry’s Why Did I Get Married? to BET’s The First Wives Club were all just what the doctor ordered to give us a little Jill to hold us over.
Jill has also been putting on a masterclass in album rollouts. Since first announcing her new album, she’s dropped by popular podcasts delivering transparent interviews with a dash of spice, humor and a whole lot of grown woman wisdom. During her stop on The Joe Budden Podcast, she hilariously revealed how much she loved the Drake and Kendrick beef.
“There was so much stuff about the beef,” she said. “I just, I loved every second of it. I was like, ‘ooo what he say?’. It was delicious.”
Budden also revealed that the singer confirmed that there was something in the water between the two rappers before anyone else did. We love a little-known Black History fact.
And, of course, our girl is never going to leave us without some words of wisdom to carry with us along the way. During her sit down with Angie Martinez for the IRL Podcast, Jill made it clear that she contains multitudes.
“I am all of this woman,” she began. “I am every bit of it. I am a mother, a daughter. I am vulnerable. I am aggressive, I am submissive. I am a learner, I am dumb. I am figuring it out as I go. I hang with really amazing people who love me forreal, forreal. I pay my bills. I go on dope vacations. I do a lot of dope s*** on the regular because I think that’s what’s supposed to happen. I’m a woman enjoying my life.”
Yes, Jill!
Getting In The Way: Jill Scott Was Told To Lose Her Copious Curves & Straighten Her Neo-Soul Strands Before Releasing Her Debut Album was originally published on bossip.com
