Singer Jill Scott is doing what she wants: 'Everything has led me to this place'

With the release of her first full-length album in more than a decade, R&B singer Jill Scott is enjoying the moment — especially since To Whom This May Concern is backed by her own label, Blues Babe Records.

"Everything has led me to this place, as this 53-year-old woman who is maneuvering her career the way she wants to, how she wants to, when she wants to, for whom she wants to," Scott says. "This has all been a part of the plan I didn't know that was even happening, but I love it."

Over the course of her decades-long career, Scott has won three Grammys, written a best-selling book of poetry and built an acting career that spanned from HBO's The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency to Tyler Perry's Why Did I Get Married?

To Whom This May Concern is Scott's sixth studio album. She says it embraces various iterations of herself, including her current role as family caregiver and her eighth-grade self, the schoolgirl who a poem out loud for the first time at graduation. Her song "Ode to Nikki" pays homage to poet Nikki Giovanni, who died in 2024.

"I literally loved writing from the very first time I read Nikki Giovanni's poetry," she says. "I was I think 12 or 13 [and I] never really saw myself on paper before."

Scott says she hopes her new album speaks to others in the same way Giovanni's words inspired her: "I wanted the album to reach people in a real way," she says. "The songs that matter to us the most, they register via the words, via the inflection from the soul — and it's timeless. I mean, that's the goal, isn't it?"

Interview highlights 

On the inspiration for her single "Pressha" 

I had been collecting music from producers for quite some time in order to make this album. And I heard it and I loved the dissonance in the chords. The chords felt so dark and haunting. But the music felt very sexy as well. Like, what is that? It's giving, you know, what is this? energy. And I put paper to pen and those are the first things that came out. "I wanted you to be mine in the daytime as well as the night." Oh, this is someone who is desired but not claimed.

I like that idea because I know that there are people who didn't choose my beloved Beyoncé. There are people who passed on Tyler, the Creator, you know. It spans for everyone. It's not specifically just for someone who is plus size or who has brown skin or who has freckles or, you know, is bow-legged. It's the fact that you could be all of what you are and someone would pass on it — desire you privately, but because society says that someone has to look a certain way ... you want to gain favor by having someone who looks a certain way on your arm. I've seen it a lot. And it's always disturbed me quite frankly. You're not even choosing what you actually like.

On being discovered by Questlove at a Philadelphia poetry event in the late 1990s

I had my feelings hurt and my girlfriends were like, "read poetry," and I was like, "OK." So I wrote and my girlfriends were like, "You're a poet." And I was like, "I'm a poet like Nikki Giovanni! I'm going to do it more." So I did it more and started to make a little bit of a name for myself, and then Questlove came to a poetry reading. … He was there and he asked me if I ever wrote songs and I was like, "Yeah, I do." But I didn't. I lied. …

When he invited me to the studio to write a hook for them, sure, I'll go. I had been listening to Do You Want More?!!!??! faithfully. It was one of my favorite albums, still is to this day. So, this is a big deal, to be asked by Questlove, but it's also, like, Philly, because this is the guy that played on the street corner. … I don't necessarily assert myself in these places. It has to be organic for me so that it's real.

On her version of the lyrics to the national anthem, which she wrote when she was 19 years old and performed years later, in 2023

I just was so frustrated and I knew I wasn't lying. … "Oh say can you see by the blood in the street?" That "this place doesn't smile on you, colored child." I could have said a lot of things. … Whose blood built this land? What is America without the Chinese on the railroad? What is American without all that free, free, free, free labor? And then please include all the other people that have contributed to this country in so many ways. Whose blood built this land, people died here, with sweat and their bare hands? But you'll die in this place and your memory erased. Look at what's happening. Look at it.

I know that people went immediately to African Americans being enslaved. I'm talking to all of us, every single, every kind of person you are. … I risked a lot to share that. I had to. … I got death threats. I've got whole hours of blogs with people being very, very ugly towards me. There was a lot of stuff about race. I was talking about us as an American society on a whole. And I was like, this was tough. This was tough, but this is what we do here as artists. We're not always gonna say the nice thing.

On leaning into her "auntie" era

I really love this auntie life. Wherever I can help, I am into it. … When somebody wants something from you, you give them a task. If they handle the task and do it well, then you can proceed. … Aretha Franklin sent me to get her two hot dogs with cooked onions and mustard. … And I went. I think I had the No. 1 album in the country at that time. And I went to the corner and I got those hot dogs and I brought them back and I just waited. I don't even think she ate them. …

You gotta earn your stripes. ... Now I am that woman to a certain degree, and now I just have a task for you. I wanna see what you're gonna do. Don't waste it. Don't waste my time. Don't waste your time. It's too valuable. And I like this. This is the auntie portion, she's a little tougher. … I'm very grateful to be a part of so many people's maturation. There's nothing wrong with being mature. There is nothing wrong with growing up.

Ann Marie Baldonado and Susan Nyakundi produced and edited this interview for broadcast. Bridget Bentz, Molly Seavy-Nesper and Jacob Ganz adapted it for the web.