"Don't I Deserve to be Privileged?" - A Thread for Jazmine Sullivan

i love the way many of the songs on the album twist and turn lyrically from where they begin. i'm still surprised when "silver lining" turns into a song about sticking people up.

― horseshoe, Wednesday, March 25, 2015 7:21 PM (12 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

"mascara" sounds like this to me, too; like it meanders, but purposefully

BOYS HAVE TOYS TOOOOOOO
WE KNOW THEY DO
THEY CALL US STUPID GIRLS
THEY CALL US STUUUUUUUUUUUUPID GIRLS

― horseshoe, Wednesday, March 25, 2015 7:23 PM (5 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

^otm

x-post- Reality Show really is a fantastic album but Fearless is still my favourite. I know I'm in the minority here but I thought Love Me Back was slightly disappointing. Nothing on there I love as much as Lions, Tigers & Bears, Dream Big or In Love With Another Man.

― Kitchen Person, Wednesday, March 25, 2015

With ya on Fearless

can someone explain to me how "stupid girls" is not a huge hit already ?

Programmers and A&R men are stupid.

xp feel the same way about stanley/brand new/mascara/#hoodlove and maybe veins and masterpiece too; album is all muscle

and forever don't last of course; so strong
saw her do that live with an unplugged guitar, she demolished it.

"brand new" is the next single i think; like "mascara" it's masterful songwriting and performance but its genius is subtle enough that it doesn't scream SMASH to me

"stupid girls" and "stanley" feel very wasted though - the former might get too many winehouse comparisons (it's not at all hampered by the similarity tho imo) but the latter feels like a song that could really get her over that hump (though i guess "don't make me wait" was a similar song from the last album)

i think "let it burn" might actually be the next single, as it is rising on the adult r&b (airplay) chart on billboard right now

"brand new" is my fave right now; it destroys me

this ain't fair
who was there?
who was lovin you?

Just show me some appreciation
Or maybe take a bitch to dinner!

"brand new" is my fave right now; it destroys me

― horseshoe, Saturday, April 4, 2015 12:44 PM (57 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

goddamn i'm so embarrassed kills me

"Brand New" is a good choice. Maybe it can catch some Empire tail, as the storyline nearly matches up with Cookie's.

FINALLY listening to the new album

She's playing next Tuesday but I've got a 6 a.m. flight the next day. ARGH.

i happen to be working a show that she's in later this year and am currently working on a bowl for her with the words "DON'T I DESERVE TO GET THE VERY BEST?" etched into it.

Would have made a better thread title

l'esprit deej l'escalier

it definitely leaves a stronger first impression than the first two albums did

The last half of this record is so much fun!!!

The last track is really great

http://littledreadridingwood.tumblr.com/post/116974587951/charismablu-my-d1vineright

is there aaaaaaany in-depth writing on this album at all

"mascara" and "brand new" are worthy of longform essays EACH

hey man I wanted 800 words

there's always dev hynes's review lol

the show last night was so good and i wish i had double the space for it

she's so fucking solid live

btw
http://www.cityparksfoundation.org/event/summerstage-rca-summer-concert-celebration-featuring-jazmine-sullivan-jordan-bratton-more/

is there aaaaaaany in-depth writing on this album at all

"mascara" and "brand new" are worthy of longform essays EACH

― lex pretend, Tuesday, April 21, 2015 4:32 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lol, I actually wrote a longform essay on Mascara back in January. It's in Norwegian though so good luck trying to read it.

http://www.dagbladet.no/2015/01/26/kultur/vers/musikk/37333714/

ha i had no idea you were norwegian. i might resort to google translate at some point

google translate makes my head hurt so no need. i only wanted to point out that SOMEONE had indeed written just that.

don't suppose you'd like to give a go at translating to english here?

Translating it all from scratch would take too long but if I can find the time I'll try to put some makeup on the google translate version.

don't we deserve to be priviligert?

i heard "brand new" on the radio yesterday :D there was a recording of her introducing it as the new single too

best song of the decade.

Literally every word and inflection is fucking perfect on this album, every detail blows me away

She is opening for Sam Smith at an outdoor Arena/theatre near DC tonight but sadly several media announcements for the show do not even mention her.

where's the video for brand new ?

She's currently pushing "Let It Burn".

http://www.vulture.com/2016/02/toughest-song-i-wrote-jazmine-sullivan-brand-new.html
http://pixel.nymag.com/imgs/daily/vulture/2016/02/05/05-brand-new-kendrick-lamar.nocrop.w529.h746.jpg

I still want to keep growing as a songwriter for as long as I can. This isn't it for me. It doesn't feel like I've arrived just yet.

i love her

i feel like the second verse of "brand new" is even better than anything kendrick would have contributed, but i also want to hear this putative remix!

i also have no idea whether he'd go apologetic or battle-of-sexes confrontational, but either way, jazmine's original tells the woman's story fully, and the male response should def be a part 2 rather than built into that

i too would love hearing kendrick on a remix, but sadly i think she has been quietly pushed from mainstream r&b radio to adult r&b radio over the course of this album cycle, where i think such a thing wouldn't take. obv we have discussed the difficulties black women in r&b (and in general) face in the mainstream lately so it seems like the older audience who wants to hear "let it burn" (as they should -- great song!) is where the industry will keep her slotted for some time :\

i remember hearing "brand new" on the mainstream r&b/hip-hop station here a couple times, complete with a recording of jazmine introducing it, but sadly they stopped playing it before long and now the only place i hear her is on the adult station that has "let it burn" in strong rotation

at both of her 2016 NYC plays (including a free concert with a 5k+ showing and a fairly expensive $40 ticket that sold out about 2.5k), both shows provided an unofficial but consistent demographic: Jazmine's audience is certainly but not drastically older than the mainstream hip hop/R&B radio demographic (heavy on the 20/early 30 somethings), more women than men (maybe a 70/30 split), lots of queer signifiers among the male audience members and a fan base dominated by more than 90% people of color.

It's worth noting that her fans are not casual fans; the crowd was going crazy every time she directly addressed them, did a costume change or tried something new with a song. They were as enthusiastic about cuts from the first album as the new album. She's endowed with the "1000 True Fans" curse/blessing: she'll be able to make a comfortable living as an artist doing it more or less the way she wants to for the rest of her career but unless she kowtows to the market, she's unlikely to have a genre-crossing megahit anytime in the next decade.

yeah, that's what i've seen on the few times she's been to the uk, and it applies to a large proportion of my own personal fav artists. i'm not that mad about jazmine not smashing on the charts, i'm mad that she really doesn't get her critical due - or at least, critics seem to ultimately love her but editors don't commission them to write about her. reality show got hardly any critical ink in 2015 and then placed surprisingly high on p&j, and of course there's the grammy nom. but where is the coverage? ok, there's a bit, but she should be talked about alongside kendrick.

I just remembered I haven't listened to this album in three weeks.

There's an interview with Pitchfork up as well! Shame it's not a part of the "main" site though where I assume more people might see it. http://pitchfork.com/thepitch/1016-jazmine-sullivan-on-songwritings-labor-of-love/

https://www.vulture.com/article/profile-jazmine-sullivan-heaux-tales.html

And she’s been writing Heaux Tales, her first concept album.

also
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYUp6q_D1lY

This is a good piece of work I likely will never listen to again

in other unlikely headline news:
https://www.vulture.com/2021/01/jazmine-sullivan-eric-church-national-anthem-super-bowl.html

this is a great record, no idea why someone wouldn't wanna listen to it again lmao

agreed; it rules

It's sound, solid.

in other unlikely headline news:
https://www.vulture.com/2021/01/jazmine-sullivan-eric-church-national-anthem-super-bowl.html🕸

who's eric church some country dude

I don't think even jazmine can save the Worst Song Ever

like jazmine, eric church is an alum of the ilm 77

he is a good artist despite the occasional self-consciousness of his rock rebel shtick

i finally (!) listened to heaux tales and it's honestly really good, confused by the not-even-lukewarm response here

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2021/feb/03/jazmine-sullivan-heaux-tales-ep-r-and-b-great-observer

the lex interviewing her. I can only imagine how happy he was to do this!

great piece

Yep, especially for regarding songwriting as something more than autobiographical plumbing

new single "Tragic" comes out tomorrow!

it sounds great

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYB9RvbMhEo

aw yeah

love it, hopefully a full-length album is on the way

I like this one.

Sounds like a flip of xscape who can I run to

Or Jones girls I guess originally

last night at the BET Awards she did a performance of "On It" with Ari Lennox and while it wasn't as great as her Soul Train Awards performance it was still excellent to see them singing about women's sexual pleasure on their terms. I know we've had twenty years of Lil Kim and so on, so explicit and raunchy isn't a big deal, but I think to see stuff performed with no "gimmicks" etc is great:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Dr8LmhjiYU

She was great live opening for Maxwell even though I was in the arena nose bleed seats and my wife and I found it to be the worst audio system at an arena show we have ever encountered