Jill Scott

Subsequently, she collaborated with Eric Benet, Will Smith, and Common, and broadened her performing experience by touring Canada in a production of the Broadway musical Rent. Signed to Steve McKeever’s newly formed Hidden Beach label, she released her debut album, Who Is Jill Scott? Words and Sounds, Vol. 1, in July 2000. One of the most favorably reviewed R&B albums of the year, the set peaked within the Top 20 of the Billboard 200 chart and reached number two on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart. Experience: Jill Scott 826+, featuring a lengthy live set on one disc and studio material (including a soaring collaboration with 4hero) on a second disc, appeared the following summer and hot on the heels of the ‘A Long Walk’ single. Scott’s star power soared over the next year, eventually earning her a Grammy nomination in early 2003 for Best Female Vocal Performance for ‘A Long Walk.’ Beautifully Human: Words and Sounds, Vol. 2 and The Real Thing: Words and Sounds, Vol. 3, both of which debuted in the Top Five of the Billboard 200, followed in 2004 and 2007, respectively. A compilation containing several of her most notable guest appearances, titled Collaborations, was also released in 2007. The same year, Scott appeared in a pair of movies, Tyler Perry’s Why Did I Get Married? and Hounddog, which set the stage for her starring role in The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency, an HBO series that debuted in 2009. A switch to Warner Bros. — which followed some legal conflict with Hidden Beach — yielded 2011’s The Light of the Sun, led by ‘So in Love,’ a collaboration with Anthony Hamilton.