I Hear Tings – Jill Scott, To Whom This May Concern

I Hear Tings – Jill Scott, To Whom This May Concern (Free Post)

how to love the music without losing your body to the spell

The painting is by Elisheba Israel (graphic design is mine)

Yours faithfully,

the church of Jill Scott

was where I first found holy valediction—

validation.

a sophomore in high school for the ninety-nine and the two thou,

grown in my mind,

a whole grown baby—

my body swollen wit tings too heavy to hold,

but somehow molded me,

made me,

a so-called woman.

and Miss Scott was swole too,

all the way through.

and as I looked through the crowd, I knew

that she knew too.

to whom this may concern—

Miss Jill Scott dropped a new album,

and she was one of the first artists

whose propaganda spelled me in full.

ya’ll cringe; I name it for what it is.

it’s weird to me how so-called artists

are somehow placed above the lives they mold.

I can only hold full accountability for me,

but this here place and space

depends on spelled distraction.

and as a sophomore in high school,

I was coming up on almost ten years

of having a period.

so by the time I was in high school,

listening to Miss Jill Scott’s first album

in a body swelling with emotions

and feelings that had reached maturity,

I was told to erase

and place in some nigga named Jesus.

there were tings—not just blood—

flowing out of me

that I needed to know and explore.

instead, I was told to cut the flow.

them feelins became a fire within,

and without the guidance I needed,

I began engaging sexual behaviors—

all with the soundtrack of Jill Scott

in the background.

most of y’all aren’t capable of holding this nuance,

’cause to be American

is to engage cult culture daily—

that is the delulu.

this will be the second Jill Scott album

that I haven’t purchased,

’cause the spell manifests across time and money,

body and brain.

and because most of us live in disembodied space,

you’ll misinterpret this

as me talking bad about Miss Scott.

I am not.

I am listening to the album as I write this.

“Asé.”

but these 2026 ears

ain’t the tender baby ears of the year 2000.

this about expanding into something bigger,

’cause Jill Scott ain’t over me

or better than me—

and there was a time my body processed it as such.

that’s the nature of parasocial relationships:

a founding core of American distractive culture.

I can support and even love the culture,

but I can’t support it

outside the full support of myself.

most of us don’t recognize

the ways we’re spelled to the culture

and how that keeps us

from the liberation we claim to seek.

and this is my disclaimer—

because the club goes up on a Tuesday

and I will neva “Pay You on a Tuesday,”

"cause I don’t want no more “Nigga Blues.”

and yet, to be Black and Blue,

I—

“Sincerely Do.”

Jill Scott—

for that lesson learned,

thank you.