By: Alaina Coats
Updated April 14, 2025
Her name is Jill Scott!, exclamation point included. That’s how her mother spelled it out on her birth certificate. Scott’s mother ensured from the beginning that at some point the world would hear from her daughter.
Naturally, Scott grew to become a lover of words. She is a writer and poet at heart who loves to sing. The soulful beats that accompany her melodies stand complementary to the greater messages that she brings her audiences. It is in her words where her fans get the chance to uncover who Scott truly is.
Because she’s such a skilled wordsmith, with just a few lyrics of her music we learn so much about Scott and about the things that are important to her, all the while being careful to honor her need for personal, creative space and privacy.
But, if speculation proves true, Scott is without a doubt a womanist with a womanist theology. Womanism is a term coined in 1983 by the famed author of The Color Purple, Alice Walker. Womanism gives voice to the Black woman, her experiences, and her struggles.
In her songs “Womanfesto,” “Rolling Hills,” “I Keep,” and “Still Here,” Scott defines her worth as a Black woman and rejects the myths and stereotypes that are often associated with Black women’s appearances, careers, and capabilities. In those songs, she contends that she, like so many other talented Black women, is intellectual, nurturing, a provider, and a resourceful refuge for her community, men included.
She told Interview Magazine when she released her fourth studio album, “Light of the Sun.” “I think what irks me is that I feel like women are really being compartmentalized physically, and it’s been done so much that now we’re doing it to ourselves. I don’t like it. I don’t necessarily think of myself as a feminist, but I’m a whole person...—I’m a whole being! ... I don’t want to lose the all of me trying to be some piece of me.”
Scott grew up with a strong faith, routinely attending worship services with her mother at the Kingdom Hall. She’s no stranger to praying and petitioning God on behalf of herself and others who may need healing, protection, and guidance from God in any area of their lives.
Though the list is endless, her hit songs like “Golden,” “Rolling Hills,” “A Long Walk,” “Hear My Call,” and “Jahraymecofasola” allow us to see God through her eyes.
The fact that Scott feels confident to freely ask God for healing, discernment, and freedom in her music gives validity to the Black woman’s voice, her relationship with God, and God’s willingness to assist them without a male or white intercedent and without having to be within the confines of a religious institution or platform.
She told BET that the meaning of the song “Jahraymecofasola” is, “God is king to me with the fourth note of the diatonic scale to such an extent that I exult.”
Scott's poetic brilliance and authenticity will be remembered and treasured for a lifetime. Her voice is one of the most powerful Black poetic voices of our time.
