Robbed hit of the week 9/5/22 - Jill Scott's "A Long Walk"...
"A Long Walk" - Jill Scott
from the album Who Is Jill Scott?: Words and Sounds Vol. 1 (2000)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #43
This week's robbed hit comes from neo-soul songstress Jill Scott, who grew up in Philadelphia, where she went to school and college before embarking on a music career. Starting out as a spoken-word artist, Jill eventually met up with fellow Philadelphian Ahmir Questlove Thompson of the hip-hop band The Roots. Scott performed on their albums and co-wrote the group's top-40 crossover hit "You Got Me", though the record company made the Roots have the already successful Erykah Badu sing on the record.
Scott eventually got signed as a solo artist on the "indie" label Hidden Beach Recordings, which was distributed by label giant Universal. It was there that she released her debut album Who Is Jill Scott?: Words and Sounds Vol. 1 in the summer of 2000. The lead single from the record, "Gettin' In The Way", was co-written by Scott with producer Vidal Davis, and made it to #28 on Billboard magazine's R&B Singles chart, while "bubbling under" the pop Hot 100 at #115. But more telling, the jazz-tinged tell-off song was a top-40 hit in the United Kingdom, and at the 2001 Grammy Awards, "Gettin' In The Way" was nominated for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance, losing out to Toni Braxton for "He Wasn't Man Enough". Jill was also up for Best New Artist, which scandalously went home with Shelby Lynne that year (who was on her sixth album), as well as Best R&B Album for the Who Is Jill Scott? set, which went to D'Angelo for his neo-soul opus Voodoo.
With that momentum, after an unsuccessful attempt at a revival at stiffed first single "Love Rain", which sported spoken-word poetry delivery that radio couldn't embrace, Scott released her most known single, "A Long Walk". Written by Jill with Andre Harris, who produced the track with Vidal Davis, the song has Scott hanging with her love, and flows through all possibilities of what they could be doing with their time including specifics like concerts or the movies, but also more intellectual prospects name-checking passages in both the Bible and the Quran. In the middle of this she states she knows her partner's shortcomings and past, but respects his overcoming that. And refreshingly for that genre none of these explorations of what to do are carnal save for the end where she proposes to "find a spot for us to spark". However the song closes with "Elevations, maybe baby, maybe we can save the nation", a much more loftier goal. The music video is a clever slight-of-hand camera work to feign a one-take shot as she traverses Philly through the eyes of her love (until the end), with color added to herself and those who the lover touches...
While "A Long Walk" rose to #9 on Billboard magazine's R&B Singles chart, spending 37 weeks on the list, the song stopped a few notches below to pop Hot 100 top-40 in March of 2001. On the radio, the song rose to #6 on the R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay chart, while topping the older-skewing Adult R&B format for seven weeks. Internationally, the single peaked at #54 in the United Kingdom. The Who Is Jill Scott? album, released in July of 2000, climbed to #17 on the Billboard 200 sales tally, spending 70 weeks on the chart, as well as #2 on the R&B Albums list, going on to sell over two million copies.
A final single from the debut, "The Way" (not to be confused with "Gettin' In The Way"), made it to #2 on Billboard's Adult R&B radio chart, and #15 on the main R&B Singles list, and stalled at #60 on the pop Hot 100. In the fall of 2001, Scott released a double disc of part live recordings and part unreleased material, Experience: Jill Scott 826+. One of the redone Who Is Jill Scott tracks, "He Loves Me (Lyzel In E Flat)", was named for her then-husband Lyzel Williams. It went to #46 on the R&B Singles chart and #10 on the Adult R&B format, while the remixed transformation of the record helped it become her first hit on Billboard's Dance Club Play chart at #19. The song "bubbled under" the Hot 100 at #125, while the Experience album got to a respectable #38 on the Billboard 200, and #7 on the R&B Albums list, going gold in the process (500,000 units shipped). "He Loves Me" gave Scott her third consecutive Grammy nomination for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance in 2003, which went to Mary J. Blige for "He Think I Don't Know".
Jill's next proper studio album, Beautifully Human: Words and Sounds Vol. 2, arrived in the summer of 2004. The set came in all the way at #3 on the Billboard 200, and topped the R&B Albums list for a week, though only selling just over a half-million (less than a quarter of her previous record). The album spun off three songs that hit the R&B top-40, as well as the Adult R&B top ten. Of them "Whatever", which got to #34 on the main R&B chart, topped the Adult R&B list for a week. Again, dance remixes of the track helped it become her biggest hit on the Club Play tally at #3. The song was nominated for the Best R&B Female Vocal again in 2005, losing to Alicia Keys for her "If I Ain't Got You" showstopper. The Beautifully Human set was also up for Best R&B Album, which also went to Keys for The Diary of Alicia Keys. Third single "Cross My Mind", which got to #38 on the R&B singles chart and #6 at Adult R&B stations, won the Grammy for Best Urban Alternative Performance.
In 2006, Scott was featured on two high-profile tracks that earned her two more Grammy Awards. First, her take on the classic "God Bless The Child" from the collaborative album from jazz-soul legends George Benson and Al Jarreau won for Best Traditional R&B Performance that year, while her pairing with Latin rapper Lupe Fiasco on "Daydreamin", which went to #63 on the R&B singles chart, took the prize for Best Urban Alternative Performance. Both of these would appear on her Jill Scott Collaborations collection, which went to #12 on the Billboard 200 and #3 on the R&B Albums list.
The following year, Scott returned with the third and final volume in her Words and Sounds series, The Real Thing. The lead single from the set, "Hate On Me", rose to #24 on the R&B Singles chart, and #9 at the Adult R&B format, while "bubbling under" the pop Hot 100 at #107. The song was nominated for the Best Female R&B Vocal Performance Grammy, which Alicia Keys again took home for "No One". The Real Thing album, which got to #4 on the Billboard 200 and #2 on the R&B Albums list, was also up for Best R&B Album, which went to Chaka Khan for her Funk This record.
At this point, Jill left Hidden Beach for her own imprint Blues Babe under the Warner Brothers label, precipitating a lawsuit from the former company for leaving halfway through her promised contract. While this was going on, she had also divorced Lyzel and was engaged to her drummer John Roberts. Scott released her next album The Light Of The Sun in the summer of 2011, which was her first to go to #1 on the Billboard 200, and her second on the R&B Albums list. Lead single "So In Love", a duet with Anthony Hamilton, landed Scott her second top ten R&B hit at #10, as well as returning her to the pop Hot 100 at #97. But where the song shone was on Adult R&B radio, where it spent eighteen weeks at #1. She also topped the Adult R&B chart with third single "Blessed", which is her most recent R&B Singles appearance at #27. That same year, Jill guested on Washington DC go-go music legend Chuck Brown's We Got This album on "Love" with Marcus Miller, which was up for the Best R&B Duo/Group Performance with Vocals, losing to Sade for "Solder Of Love". Hidden Beach, in the settlement of the lawsuit, was able to put out The Original Jill Scott From The Vault Vol. 1 in the fall of 2011, which landed a seventh Billboard 200 top-40 album at #28. They have since put out two most collections of previously unreleased material.
Scott's most recent studio album, Woman, arrived in 2015, and was her second #1 on the Billboard 200 and third on the R&B Albums list. Lead single "Fool's Gold" hit #3 on Billboard's Adult R&B chart, followed by "Back Together" at #6. "Can't Wait", the third offering from the set, went to #3 on that list, and was Jill's most recent Grammy nomination, this time for Best Traditional R&B Performance, which Lalah Hathaway won for "Angel". Since then, she's been more visible on the television screen, starring in a remake of the First Wives Club as well as in the DC Comics adaptation Black Lightning.
(9/10)
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Next up, on VH1'a Soul on a televised concert doing "A Long Walk" and "Golden"...
...and lastly, at the Essence Music Festival in 2010...
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