And, breathe.
Jill Scott is finally back, marking her return with To Whom This May Concern, her sixth studio album and first in more than a decade.
The three-time Grammy Award-winning R&B star gave long-suffering fans the news they’d been waiting for, the announcement of new music, by way of a social post on Jan. 2.
That day has arrived, as To Whom This May Concern drops independently through her own Blues Babe imprint, with distribution through Human Re Sources/The Orchard. It’s the follow-up to Woman, which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 way back in 2015.
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“I did not have a creative block,” she tells Billboard’s Gail Mitchell, explaining her absence from the spotlight. “I just took a creative break. [The creative is] always there. It’s the energy that follows me around the house: in the shower, when I’m cleaning, making a bed. But I needed to take a break from that so that I could live life. I am, you know, a human being. So of course, there’s all kinds of stuff like perimenopause. That’s interesting. I have a teenager now; that’s different than ever before.”
To Whom This May Concern arrives just in time Valentine’s Day, and is stacked with guest spots, including appearances from Ab-Soul, J.I.D., Tierra Whack, and Too $hort, and production from Adam Blackstone, Om’Mas Keith, DJ Premier, Camper, Andre Harris, Seige Monstracity, Trombone Shorty, Eric Wortham, DW Wright, and VT Tolan.
“I really don’t think you can create without having the balance between the two,” Scott continues in her conversation with Billboard. “It’s important to one, connect with yourself, remember who you are. Like I tell my folk, ‘Jill Scott doesn’t live in my house.’ Nobody calls me that in my house. There’s a separation so that I can fill her up. And that’s me. I have to fill me up so I can fill Jill Scott.”
Scott has landed eight titles on the Billboard 200, including four top 10s and two leaders, with Woman and The Light of the Sun (from 2011), both of which topped the all-genres albums chart for a week.
Stream all 19 tracks of To Whom This May Concern below.