During a recent interview with Madame Noire, Jill Scott talked about relationships and how loving even after a heartbreak is still worth it. Check out her full interview below.
MN: Woman‘s release date was scheduled closely to the 15-year anniversary of your first album, Who Is Jill Scott?. It feels like the first album poses a question while the latest offers an answer. Was that your intention or is it just a coincidence?
No, actually, I was going for that. And I’ve been making an attempt to answer the question every album. That’s been a part of my little journey.
MN: Your single “Fools Gold” resonated with so many women because it was so honest and relatable. Do you ever feel like you need to hold back because you’re too real in the studio?
Yup. But I think that’s what being an artist is all about. To me anyway. The artists that I enjoy are rough and honest. Salvatore Dali is one of my favorites. He’s an artist. He put his blood and his sperm and his urine and his skin into his artwork. I think that’s just a part of my musical testimony that I live a life, and sometimes I get things right and sometimes I don’t and I sing about it.
The plan is to offer other people the understanding that we don’t really always get it right. Sometimes, we fail at love and things that we hoped would work out. I want women to know, particularly in this hard-hearted world, that it is still worth it. Men too. It’s still worth it. Love is still worth it! You might get your feelings hurt. You just might. But that is the risk that you take. If you are someone who seeks thrills and you jump off of a building, there’s a big possibility that the parachute will not open. There’s also the possibility that you’re going to see something that nobody else could see in this moment but you. I find that to be invigorating and life affirming.
Money does not make everything alright. Being hot or sexy to many other people is not going to make everything alright. You gotta go through the fire. So I’ve been going through the fire. I’ve been experiencing living, and I’ve been doing it for quite some time now. I see the difference from when I was a younger girl to where I am now. I wouldn’t change anything. I wouldn’t change it for the world. I like this headspace. I wish I could have my 22-year-old body back. That would be awesome, but I can enjoy this, and grow and learn and inspire others not to give up. Just keep going. Keep going, regardless of how hard society may appear to be.
MN: Well, that’s encouraging.
That’s the plan. I’d rather talk real shit.
MN: Speaking of love, a while back you shared that one of the ways that you knew your marriage was headed for divorce was that your ex-husband stopped eating your food. Why do you believe something like that is a telltale sign that a relationship is probably in trouble?
Well, you know me. I believe that there’s always a part of family and love in the kitchen. Whether you’re making lemonade or something a little fancier, love is in it. Imagine your mother has slaved over a meal. She’s made a great effort to make you a delicious meal, and you don’t eat it. She might take the L once, or twice. But after a while she’s going to feel some kind of way and after a while, she’s going to stop cooking altogether because you don’t appreciate it. It was one of those things where I just didn’t feel appreciated, and it was a big sign to even bigger signs.
MN: What would you like listeners to walk away with after hearing Woman in its entirety?
I would say that you’ve been privy to a journal entry—many. You know, we write in our journals sometimes, everyday. Then sometimes, you skip a month, or skip three, and then you go back to your journal and you see where your head was. You see what you were thinking and how you were feeling and you say, “Aw, dag. I was really bugging,” or “This is where my life started to change. This page. I’ve grown here. I see myself here.” I have journals from when I was 12. I don’t know what they’re going to get out of this album, but I do know that I’ve made a concious effort to put a lot of incredible musicians together for it. It stands many genres of music and the core is storytelling. I think I’m a storyteller more than people give me credit for being a singer, and I appreciate that. But I think I’m a storyteller, really. My voice and energy merges into whatever it needs to tell the story. That’s the most important part for me. So if you relate to something, or you can see the pictures, great. And I hope that it fills your nights and your days and it will be in the background when you write your journal.