8/14/2019 Jazmin Sullivan "Fabulous, Fated, Fearless"

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/jazmin-sullivan-fabulous-fated-fearless 1/4PAGE 20

COVER stORy  www.BREmagazi ne.com 2 0 0 8

By Ruth Adkins Robinson

Fabulous, Fated, Fearless

But in today’s digital technology, when

a young performer seems newly vaulted

into the limelight, massive information

about them is instantaneous, posted

on the Internet, along with the date

the poster first became aware of the

artist and whether some observers did

know ‘there was a star in there.’ Over

the last few years the Internet crowds

have thronged in support of one of the

brightest talents in the latest crop of 

stars--the tall, beautiful, golden-throated

RMG artist Jazmine Sullivan.

Often those posting comments, videos

and testimony seem prescient when it

comes to Sullivan’s fate. For instance,

on October 20, 2007, Nunya posted:

“I’m really excited about her project! She’s

been around for a while doing club shows;

hopefully now she can get some more shine.”  

The same week, Rae20072007 posted,

“Oh my goodness! I’ve been waiting for 

 ya’ll. Two years I’ve been listening to her,

I’m glad somebody caught up!!” 

Back in the day,  when a new star was born, there

were people dotted along the landscape who would say, ‘Oh, I

always knew there was a star there’,” or ‘I’ve known about her

forever.’ It was easy to say and difficult to prove, something akin

to saying you were in the ballpark when Hank Aaron hit the fabled

homerun or ringside when Muhammad Ali beat everybody down.

8/14/2019 Jazmin Sullivan "Fabulous, Fated, Fearless"

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/jazmin-sullivan-fabulous-fated-fearless 2/4

2 0 0 8 www.BREmagazine.com

8/14/2019 Jazmin Sullivan "Fabulous, Fated, Fearless"

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/jazmin-sullivan-fabulous-fated-fearless 3/4

A whole lot of people

have caught up, Rae. Right

now Jaz is being toasted

lavishly as the ‘next big

thing.’ There are reasons

for the champagne to be

pop topping. Her debut

single, “Need U Bad,” was

really something different.

Bouncing between reggae-

tinged verses and a total

R&B hook, it captured

wild interest from her

already faithful. In June,

Ally posted, “Girl, me and 

my girlfriends love ur song.

Your voice is amazing. They

be bumpin’ you on v-103

in GA. We love it at the end 

when it say ‘Me can’t eat, me

can’t s leep.’ Keep doing what 

 you do!” 

“Need U Bad” raced up

the Mainstream R&B/Hip-

Hop, Hot R&B/Hip-Hop

Songs and Hot R&B/Hip-

Hop Airplay charts claiming

the number one spot with

a speed that was so rare for

a new artist that Jazmine is

only the eighth act in the

entire decade to do so and

the first since Ciara did it

almost four years ago.

The video for the song

is so hot it hit #1 on

BET’s “106 & Park” video

countdown show for three

non-consecutive days after

her live performance on

the show in August. The Jonathan Mannion-directed

video for “Need U Bad”

is also the second highest-

rated R&B video on AOL 

Music.

There’s more than

stats in her story though.

Listen to the people. On

August 2, 2008 at 8:57pm,

schmekadlegr posted this

comment about the video:

“I think the song is great 

and the down home feel of 

the video makes her look real 

sophisticated. It has a nicemeaning to it.” 

Naturally, MTV and VH1

are all over her. She nabbed

the new artist spotlight on

VH1 Soul’s “You Oughta

Know” and MTV’s

“Discover and Download.”

On September 24, BET

airs “Jazmine Sullivan =

Fearless,” a 30-minute

special featuring the

talented singer performing

tracks from her debut

disc. The debut song is

 Jazminestands out from all theother artistsbecause she sings

 with so much conviction!But not only is she agreat singer, she’s a great 

 writer. She’s not just anartist, she’s a performer!She’s just as great live as

she is on records. And you don’t get that from alot of artists today.—Missy Elliott 

 www.BREmagazine.com

8/14/2019 Jazmin Sullivan "Fabulous, Fated, Fearless"

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/jazmin-sullivan-fabulous-fated-fearless 4/4

COVER stORy

also R&R’s first rookie Rhythmic No. 1 of 2008, compared to only six who

claimed that spot in all of last year.

All this is pretty heady stuff for a young woman of 21, but she’s not young

when it comes to experience, disappointment or desire. A zip around the

Internet will soon reveal the video of a sweet-faced young Jaz as one of the

contestants on “Showtime at the Apollo.” Having written that particular

show for six years, I’ve often been inspired by the young talent whose

stardom is often projected in their future while they are still in their cribs.

They are fated for success and everybody watching knows it.

Seemed that way for little Jaz. Even at eleven, her voice was unmistakably

an instrument of great beauty. Gospel labels came calling on the heels of 

her song choice for the venerable TV show, “Accept What God Allows,” a

natural choice since Sullivan’s first introduction to music began at church.

“I remember singing around five or six in the choir. I was in the junior choir,

and I was the first child admitted into the young adult choir. I was so proud

of myself,” she says.

 Jaz and her family turned down the offer to record gospel music. Not that

long after, Sullivan decided that she wanted to sing secular music so her

mother immersed her in classic R&B. “She played me Aretha, Stevie, Donny

Hathaway, Phyllis Hyman. This was during the age of hip-hop so I wasn’t

into that at first but I soon began to appreciate it too.”

A talent this big can’t be confined in a small place so Sullivan searched for

places to perform in her hometown of Philadelphia. One of her first stops

was the famed Black Lily, a musical collective started by The Jazzyfatnastees

in the mid-to-late ‘90s when Philly was giving birth to a whole movement

of new artists including Jill Scott, The Roots, Floetry and Kindred. “It was

booming,” recalls Jazmine. “I started singing with a live band: old school

songs like Sly’s ‘Thankyoufalettinmebemiceelfagain” and Marvin Gaye’s

‘What’s Going On.’

It was through performances at Black Lily that Sullivan got a chance to

jam with Stevie Wonder. “Fatin and Aja (Kindred, the Family Soul) were

going to see Stevie and they invited me. He really took to me, especially

after he heard me sing his song, ‘These Three Words.’ He enjoyed the

performance so much that he began to sing with me as we got into a jam

session, taking turns riffing. It was so much fun and an experience that I’ll

never forget!”

That impromptu performance led to Jazmine’s appearance on Wonder’s

annual “Toys for Tots” show in Los Angeles with Kirk Franklin, Scott and

others. Word of mouth of Jazmine’s amazing vocal talents quickly spread,

but it was a re-encounter with Missy Elliott, who took Sullivan into a Miami

studio with partner Timbaland, which made various records labels payattention.

She signed with Jive when she was only 15, but developing product

proved problematic. “When I used to go into the studio, they saw me as this

older person because my voice was so much older. They would give me stuff 

that reflected what my voice could do—but they didn’t realize that I was

15,” Sullivan explains. Within three years of signing to Jive, Sullivan and the

label parted ways. She says she “nearly cried” when her mother told her the

news, but kept her Mom from seeing the tears, “letting them loose” when

she reached her own room. “I can’t say I wasn’t sad. I was very sad,” she

says, but she moved on to work behind the scenes with Missy Elliot on the

powerhouse producer’s other projects.

Her name is on background credits for the Elliott-produced tracks on

Fantasia’s debut album Free Yourself  and songwriting credits on two tracks

from Christina Milian’s last album, So Amazin’ , including the album’s first

single, “Say I,” which features Young Jeezy.And she never stopped singing/writing/recording with a whole grip of East

Coast producers including Cool & Dre, Stevie J. & Havoc, Kwame, The

Heavyweights, Anthony Bell and others, to name a few.

And the Internet watchers kept track. Last year, Knuck had this

observation: “Her voice is so freakin’ amazing. She has a lot of songs on YouTube

and if you still want to hear something, listen to the background vocals on

 Fantasia’s “Free Yourself.” 

Then she reunited with Missy, who, Sullivan says, “has always been there

for me and believed in me.” What followed was a yearlong preparation to

meet the J Records founder and venerable A&R icon Clive Davis. Yes, she

was nervous, but her sultry vocals and the maturity in her voice earned a

standing ovation from the J Records staff when she performed “In Love

With Another Man,” written and co-produced by Sullivan and Anthony

Bell. Davis and Peter Edge, A&R president at J, were delighted and Sullivan

was signed without question. The resulting album, Fearless,

captures the scope of Sullivan’s talents, aided by her stalwart

friend Missy.

Defining Jazmine’s distinctive musical talents, Elliott

explains: “Jazmine stands out from all the other artists because

she sings with so much conviction! But not only is she a great

singer, she’s a great writer. She’s not just an artist; she’s a

performer! She’s just as great live as she is on records. And

you don’t get that from a lot of artists today.”

Executive producer and sole songwriter on Fearless, Sullivan

(along with Elliott, Salaam Remi and Peter Edge) orchestrated

a debut opus full of lush musical arrangements by Elliott, Remi,

Stargate, Jack Splash, Fisticuffs and others–complemented

by Sullivan’s own intelligent, expressive songwriting and rich

vocals. Having creative control of her debut, Sullivan described

 Fearless: “My music is very real, blunt, straightforward;

musically it’s all over the place. I do it all.”

That’s a fact that hasn’t escaped her fans that are listening to

other cuts from the album already, including the soulful piano

ballad, “In Love With Another Man.” Momo2879 comments,

“I love this song, I feel this way ‘bout sum 1 right now..but just don’t 

know how 2 tell them…this song brings tears 2my eyes, LOVE THIS

SONG.” 

Sullivan responds, “It’s not something I went through

personally; however, it is an honest song that I felt needed to be

told. You often hear of the man being the heartbreaker in songs

but their hearts get broken too.”

Other songs on the album include the ‘60’s soulful-

feeling “One Night Stand,” the heart-wrenching “After The

Hurricane,” the flamenco-flavored “Bust Your Windows”

(produced by Remi), and the quirky, unusually titled “Lions,

Tigers & Bears” (also produced by Remi who employed a full

orchestra for the session). The latter was inspired by Jazmine’s

portrayal of Dorothy in “The Wiz” during her childhood. “My

life has been all about music for such a long time that the

thought of love was frightening. I knew the world of music but

that other world of love was scary, new to me. It’s really about

being afraid of love.”

On October 2, 2006, a video of Sullivan was posted on the

Internet and the bloggers went on to compare Jaz’s version,

Beyonce’s version and Victoria Beckham’s take on the song“Resentment.” Between 2006 and now, there have been almost

a thousand posts comparing the various versions of the song,

many of them accusing other posters of being complete idiots.

dawntreader94 posted, “I have to say I like Jazzy’s version better,

 for what its worth.. I have mad love for Beyoncé, but I am loving 

 Jaz’s more constrained yet more soulful rendition.”  stillprayze

posted: “Jaz’s vocals on this song is killer. I like B’s, I like Victoria a

little less but I love this rendition. Full of power. Her tone is golden.” 

Some of the more interesting posts surfaced in January of 

this year, about whether Amy Winehouse or Jazmine Sullivan

had the best version of ‘‘Round Midnight.” In about 300 or so

posts, the consensus was that Sullivan’s version beat Winehouse

on the interpretation of the Thelonius Monk classic and it’s

exactly this kind of viral dialogue that opens up yet another

door to potential Sullivan fans. Winehouse fans might not havegone looking for Sullivan had it not been for this online debate.

Now, they too can jump on the Sullivan rocket.

And it’s certain to be a wild ride because Jaz has latched onto

the mysterious mix of destiny and determination that creates

major success, and at this point in her career, she can be called

Fabulous, Fated and Fearless.

2 0 0 8 www.BREmagazine.com

PAGE 23

 J Records/RMG releases Jazmine’s debut albumFearless September 23rd, which is followed by a 25-city tour that pairs Jazmine with Maxwell kicking of on October 8 in Boston and concluding Thanksgiving

 week with a stop in her hometown of Philly.