If the grumpy principal at Dobbins High School wouldn’t dispirit Jill Scott as an English-teacher trainee, telling her she’d soon “get over” her idealism so that the young woman quit start working full time, the world wouldn’t have witness the rise of a great star. The singer/poet/actress and community philanthropist from Philadelphia who has become an artist of international renown with her poignant variations on “neo-soul” music is on the verge of earning her first No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 chart as her just-released “The Light of the Sun” is headed for the top next week.

This is Scott’s fourth studio album of fused-up soul, jazz, hip-hop, blues, theatrical pop and poetry and industry savvies suggest it could sell as many as 125,000 copies by week’s end on Sunday, June 26. The artist, who was formerly with Hidden Beach Records, has sold more than 4 million albums for the small independent label for eleven years since her debut with “Who Is Jill Scott? Words and Sounds Vol. 1″. But, this new record is her first on her own imprint, Blues Babe — through Warner Bros.
She also has notched five previous entries, going as high as No. 3 with 2004’s “Beautifully Human: Words and Sounds Vol. 2″ and according to rumors, this new album’s lead single, “So In Love” will move 11-10 on the Billboard’s Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. It’s not a surprise since the three-time Grammy Awards winner called several musicians and MCs (including The Roots’ Black Thought) to make this album word by word, sound by sound.

“The Light of The Sun” reveals her feelings about love, heartbreak, motherhood, life’s blessings and self-empowerment, everything she has experienced since 2007’s “The Real Thing: Words and Sounds Vol. 3″. Cori Murray, Essence magazine’s entertainment director said about this album that it “is a perfect combination of what we’ve always loved about her: her live performances, the lyrics, her message. Fans love her so much because she has always been like, ‘This is who I am. I am passionate about what I do, and I’m going to give it to you.’”

Furthermore, Scott, who has become a theater headliner and a very good actress too (in Tyler Perry films, a Lifetime channel movie and, especially, in the first-ever-filmed-in-Botswana TV series “The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency”) will be very busy in coming weeks. She is set to perform an outdoor concert on Jimmy Kimmel Live on Thursday and at the BET Awards Sunday. Besides, she’ll co-headline the Essence Music Festival in New Orleans on July 2, while her 18-city Summer Block Party tour starts July 28 in New York. Let’s hope she’s not too busy to enjoy the success of her album.

This entry was posted on Sunday, June 26th, 2011 at 10:52 pm and is filed under News.