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Miss Jill Scott sits down with Billboard’s Gail Mitchell to discuss her new album ‘To Whom This May Concern,’ plus the generational impact & inspiration behind her music and collaborating with Too $hort, J.I.D, Tierra Whack and more.
Gail Mitchell:
I’m just so thrilled and jazzed, and I can’t even think of enough adjectives to describe how I feel sitting here next to this three-time Grammy Award winner who’s back with a new album, Miss Jill Scott. Hello!
Jill Scott:
Hi Gail Mitchell.
Hey, welcome back.
Oh my god. I can’t even remember the last time, it’s been a very long time.
Right? And I was just thinking of figuring out some questions to ask you. This is a full-circle moment for the both of us, because you were my first front-page Billboard story with your debut album, ‘Who Is Jill Scott? Words and Sounds, Volume 1,’ your debut album at the same time. So I was there for that, and now I’m back here for this, which I don’t know if you mind me saying this, but kind of like a rebirth. It’s just, oh my God, just the reception that you’ve gotten in the anticipation. This is your sixth studio album-
Yes.
‘To Whom This May Concern,’ and it reminds me of the anticipation for your first one, ‘Who Is Jill Scott.’ So when you first announced on social media this was coming, everything, everybody just kind of, oh my god. So was that the reaction you expected? I mean, it’s just tremendous. Were you nervous? Just what did you think when you got ready to hit the send button and let the world know that you were back.
Honestly, it’s been like a whole process, like initially, I felt pregnant, and I felt tired of holding it, you know, the idea of giving your baby to the world and seeing what they’re going to do with it, you know, is it’s very, very scary, you know. You know this as a parent, you know, and I do too. I remembered what I call the album ‘To Whom This May Concern,’ which kind of released me in a sense, like, “Okay, this is for the people it’s for,” and the way that I know the universe, and I know the Creator I’m like, it’s going to go to who it’s for, the rest is not your concern. That made me feel better. Then I got excited, and I was like, oh, you know, we got what, you know, it’s a countdown. All right, here we go. I feel flustered, I feel excited, I feel tired, I feel thrilled. It’s all that.
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