Jill Scott

Background

Jill Scott was born on April 4, 1972, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to her mother, Joyce Scott. She was also raised by her grandmother and grew up as an only child. Scott went to the Philadelphia High School for Girls and after she graduated, she enrolled in Temple University. She studied secondary education over there while working two jobs. She planned to become a high school English teacher. This dream was however cut short when after three years of study, and being a teacher’s aide, she dropped out of college.

She started her career as a spoken word artist, performing her own pieces at live poetry readings, and eventually linked up with Amir ‘Questlove’ Thompson of The Roots. They ended up collaborating and co-writing “You Got Me.” During a Roots show, she came out as an artist. Afterward, she secured collaborations with artists like Eric Benet, Will Smith, and Common. She also gained experience as a performer during the Canada tour of the Broadway musical production “Rent.” She became the first signed artist to the Hidden Beach Recordings label. Her first album “Who Is Jill Scott?: Words and Sounds Vol. 1” was released in 2000 and went platinum. She launched her fourth album “The Light of the Sun” in 2011 and it went on to become the number-one album in the country. In 2015, she followed it with her fifth album, “Woman.” It was the first album to be released under Atlantic Records and it debuted at the first position on the Billboard 200 Albums Chart.

Scott was writing poetry as well during this time and a compilation volume of “The Moments, The Minutes, The Hours” was published and released in April 2005 by St. Martin’s Press. Her writing prowess became recognized and she eventually became a “New York Times” best-selling poet. In 2007, she also made her movie debut in “Hounddog.” The following year, she was featured in “Why Did I Get Married?” alongside Janet Jackson. In 2008, she starred in the award-winning B.B.C./H.B.O. series “The No.1 Ladies Detective Agency.” She starred in the “Get on Up” film as James Brown’s wife. In 2018, she began showing up in The C.W. D.C. Comics superhero series as Lady Eve in “Black Lightning.”