Jazmine Sullivan

Jazmine Sullivan

Essential Albums

  • Heaux Tales, Mo' Tales: The Deluxe
    Heaux Tales, Mo' Tales: The Deluxe
    Heaux Tales, Mo' Tales: The Deluxe

    There's power in reclamation, and Jazmine Sullivan leans into every bit of it on Heaux Tales, doubling down with an updated version—Heaux Tales, Mo' Tales: The Deluxe—that adds five new tracks and some tales to go with them, including one from Issa Rae. The project takes the content and casual candour of a group chat and unpacks them across songs and narrative, laying waste to the patriarchal good girl/bad girl dichotomy in the process. It's as much about “hoes” as it is the people who both benefit from and are harmed by the notion. Pleasure takes centre stage from the very beginning; “Bodies” captures the inner monologue of the moments immediately after a drunken hook-up with—well, does it really matter? The who is irrelevant to the why, as Sullivan searches her mirror for accountability. “I keep on piling on bodies on bodies on bodies, yeah, you getting sloppy, girl, I gotta stop getting fucked up.” The theme re-emerges throughout, each time towards a different end, as short spoken interludes thread it all together. “Put It Down” offers praise for the men who only seem to be worthy of it in the bedroom (because who among us hasn't indulged in or even enabled the carnal delights of those who offer little else beyond?), while “On It”, a pearl-clutching duet with Ari Lennox, unfolds like a three-minute sext sung by two absolute vocal powerhouses. Later, she cleverly inverts the sentiment but maintains the artistic dynamism on a duet with H.E.R., replacing the sexual confidence with a missive about how “it ain't right how these hoes be winning”. The singing is breathtaking—textbooks could be filled on the way Sullivan brings emotionality into the tone and texture of voice, as on the devastating lead single “Lost One”—but it'd be erroneous to ignore the lyrics and what these intra- and interpersonal dialogues expose. Heaux Tales not only highlights the multitudes of many women, it suggests the multitudes that can exist within a single woman, how virtue and vulnerability thrive next to ravenous desire and indomitability. It stands up as a portrait of a woman, painted by the brushes of several, who is, at the end of it all, simply doing the best she can—trying to love and protect herself despite a world that would prefer she do neither.

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About Jazmine Sullivan

A soul belter who pens cutting lyrics, Philadelphia-born Jazmine Sullivan became an R&B sensation because of her devastating honesty and no-nonsense singing style. Born in 1987, Sullivan honed her talents at the Philadelphia High School for the Creative and Performing Arts. A session with fellow Philadelphians Kindred the Family Soul resulted in her meeting hip-hop pioneer Missy Elliott, who went on to produce Sullivan’s 2008 debut, Fearless. That versatile, humour-laced album, led by singles including the storming “Lions, Tigers & Bears” and the vengeful “Bust Your Windows”, earned her several Grammy nominations and established her as a next-generation force in pop-soul. Love Me Back, her 2010 follow-up, expanded on her strengths, with the regretful “Holding You Down (Goin’ In Circles)” and the swaying Ne-Yo collaboration “U Get On My Nerves” highlighting her growth as a vocalist. After taking a break from the music business in 2011, she returned three years later with the sweeping “Dumb”, the first single from her explosive 2015 full-length Reality Show. Sullivan, along with Bryson Tiller, contributed the title track for the Insecure soundtrack in 2017, and in late 2020, she released two singles—the slow-burning “Pick Up Your Feelings” and the haunting “Lost One”—that furthered her legacy as one of the 21st century’s finest practitioners of classically minded yet forward-thinking R&B.

HOMETOWN
Philadelphia, PA, United States
BORN
9 April 1987
GENRE
R&B/Soul

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