On To Whom This May Concern, Jill Scott explores love in its many forms, from romantic love to self-love, and rediscovered love after heartbreak. Guests include J.I.D., Trombone Shorty, and Too $hort.
Grammy winning poet priestess of neo soul Jill Scott returns with her first album of new material in a decade, and it feels less like a comeback than a gathering. The record hums with vibes of horns curling through warm air, basslines stretching out to the horizon, and rhythms that sway rather than stomp, music made to be lived in. Scott announced the album with a note of gratitude, thanking fans for their patience and their listening ears. That faith radiates through the record. To Whom This May Concern is not addressed to critics or charts. It is addressed to whoever needs it.
The opening salvo, “Beautiful People,” sets the tone. Co-created with a tight knit circle of collaborators Scott affectionately calls her village, the track glows with communal joy. Handclaps, buoyant keys, and layered vocals move like a block party in slow motion. It’s both invitation and affirmation. Creating takes a village, she reminds us, and here she shares hers most literally. Growth arrives not as a slogan but as process. There are grooves that feel flirtatious and loose, and others that land with the gravity of lived experience. Her voice remains a marvel, supple and conversational one moment, thunderous and declarative the next.
The guest list reads like a cross generational summit. Atlanta wordsmith J.I.D. slices through a track with nimble precision. Ab-Soul brings introspection shaded in midnight tones. Tierra Whack adds her surreal sparkle. Too $hort slides in with veteran cool. Behind the boards, DJ Premier’s boom bap fingerprints meet the brassy exuberance of Trombone Shorty and the atmospheric polish of Om’Mas Keith. The result is an album that nods to hip hop’s backbone while remaining rooted in soul’s embrace.
What makes To Whom This May Concern resonate most is its emotional transparency. Scott sounds unhurried, unbothered by trends, deeply invested in connection. There is laughter in the arrangements, space in the production, room for breath between phrases. Even at its most rhythmically dense, the album feels intimate. In an era obsessed with constant output, Scott waited until she had something to say. And she says it with grace, with groove, and with a choir of friend to amplify the message.