Jill Scott Tackles New Subjects
I’ve always liked Jill Scott. Pardon the terrible, terrible music cliche, but the woman marches to the beat of her own drum. She puts her personal life, including a recent divorce, out there in her songs. She talks A LOT on stage, if her live album is any indication. She goes into these long, sort of random spoken-word pieces, and tells adults in the audience to send their kids away because this is “for grown folks.” And that was just the early years.
Sometimes, Scott gets lumped in with other neo-soul singers, like Erykah Badu. But, that’s not fair. She’s definitely not as wacky as Badu, who inspired this memorable passage in a Texas Monthly profile:
I had already learned something that morning about waiting for Badu. She had been in her home studio until five in the morning, so we had started our interview almost two hours late. Badu admits that her own conception of the temporal rarely coincides with the one used by people who wear watches. Now, holding her daughter, she talked, again in her own way, about time. “The last ten years have been like a circle,” she said, “going back to Chinese astrology. I got my record deal in 1996, which was the Year of the Pig, and my first album came out in 1997. I was born in 1971, which was also the Year of the Pig. And 2007 will be the Year of the Pig again. I know this year will be special.”
(Sorry, I read the story over a year and a half ago, and I still remembered that, and felt a strong desire to share it.)
Back to Scott. When her Who Is Jill Scott? CD came out in 2000, I borrowed it from a friend and listened to it for a long time. I’ve been less enamored with her recent cds, but I’m always interested in knowing what she’s up to. She’s coming to the Merriweather Post Pavilion on Saturday, and then she heads off to Africa to do more filming on The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency. The movie has been in the news a lot, especially when director Anthony Minghella passed away in March.
But, I’ve seen little about Scott’s “first-ever” “earthy, personal and tell-it-like-it-is” book of poetry, as the book jacket calls it.
Included in this book, I expected to see quite a few verses on overcoming loss, hope, body image, city life in Philadelphia (Jill’s hometown), and love, love, love. Scott loves love. That’s for sure.
What I did not expect to see was this small poem, as well as a few others surprises:
I pushed and
I grunted and
I labored and
I squeezed and
You splashed and
I cleaned and
I stood and
I flushed
and
I don’t even think of you now
The title: “Potty Trained”
Photo by Simba Madziva
5 Responses to “Jill Scott Tackles New Subjects”
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August 1st, 2008 at 8:54 pm
You forgot to mention that Jill loves to sing about food. Her morbid obesity is a testament to her unhealthy relationship with food. Considering how much she consumes it really isn’t surprising that she’s written a poem about defecating.
August 5th, 2008 at 8:20 pm
I rarely respond to web postings. I find it a waste of time. But, today, as I sought a distraction from my work, I was compelled. I am going to preface everything that I say with this: I am a BIG fan of Jill Scott. I discovered her at a make-out party when I was 22. I know what some of you are thinking, “Make-out party! Isn’t that for 13 year olds. If 13 year olds had such parties! These days they are having orgies. Anyway, I digress –trust me, one is never too old for a make-out party! They keep you youthful and alive. I was fresh off my first break-up with my first “real” boyfriend and the second track on the first album hooked me. The four couples at the party laughed and made out to that song for at least three hours. Then, a genius in the room said, “I wonder what the other songs on the album sound like?” And, it was over.
I have enjoyed seeing and hearing Jill’s evolution. How good it is to know that we do not have to stay the same? How boring, how tiring, how unfortunate it would be if we never grew, changed, and expanded. I am certainly glad I am not 22 years old anymore; I am certainly glad I know how to move through the triumphs, trails, and tribulations of love a lot smoother than I did when I was 22. Hell, I am glad that I will get through my next break up better than I did my last. Like, Jill I love to love.
Jill Scott’s albums have seen me through many phases of my life. Some of her songs are soo on time. I especially, related to the bluesy “Celibacy Thing” on her last album. In the song, I felt her channeling a tradition of blues women: Bessie Smith, Ma Rainey, Billie Holiday, just to name a few. I felt the ancestoral influence, at the same time, I enjoyed how the melody and the subject matter hit with contemporary time. Our world would be such a better place if everyone, men and women, young and old, took a break from their bodily needs, to deepen their sense of self. It works!
Anyway, I say this to say. Jill Scott is doing more than trying new subject matter–she is expanding whatever rigid boundaries that have been imposed on her as an artist; she is demonstrating her ability to grow and expand as a creative being on earth; and she is standing as an emblem of resilance.
If you read the poem closing, you will see that it is not just about defacating. Such a reading is elementary at best. The poem is about a struggle in a relationship. The “I”-narrator voice dominates the text. The grunting sounds makes me think that she is waged in a struggle where words are not suffice to explain the depth of the drama associated with the event. Also, from the number of “I” references, I take that the narrator is doing a lot of work around the situation. There is little resistance from the “you”; this is indicated by the one verb that illustrates his/her action–”splashed.” Obviously this poem is about the uneven work in a relationship or any situation involving two people.
At the end of the poem, the narrator indiciates that she flushes. She announces that she doesn’t think of “you” anymore. Of course, the irony is that she does. If she didn’t, would there be a poem?
And, so the poem is about love and loss. A subject matter that is not new to Jill as the title of this poem would suggest. Instead, the poem demonstrates how an artist makes defamiliarizes something familiar. In others, Jill is writing about love under the guise of defactaing.
And, I am writing under the guise of suggesting that only people with small minds and narrow ways of looking at the world would make a pot-shot at somebody’s physical frame. C’mon we Americans. Everyone in this country has an unhealthy relationship with food. So much so, that we waste tons of food as people starve all around the world everyday. Exploring our wasteful habits in light of the starvation rates around the world is a much healthier conversation that talking about Jill Scott’s body, which, if I do say so myself, is very beautiful.
August 6th, 2008 at 9:28 am
A.M.T., That was one hell of a comment. You should respond to web postings more often.
October 5th, 2008 at 8:05 pm
Hello. And Bye.
November 21st, 2008 at 1:43 am
dude you know what I’m talking about! soy desole