Listen Live
The Light 103.9 Featured Video
CLOSE

Jill Scott is a complex, multi-talented artist, and despite her notoriety, there’s a lot you might not know about the singer, songwriter, poet, actress, and humanitarian. Since releasing her debut album, “Who Is Jill Scott? Words and Sounds Vol. 1,” in 2000, the Philadelphia native has put together a remarkable career. To date, she’s dropped four studio albums, won three Grammys, appeared in five feature films and toured with the likes of Maxwell. Below are 10 things you might not know about Jill Scott.

1. Jill Scott was raised Jehovah’s Witness, and although she was never baptized and no longer practices, she credits the religion with teaching her to be humble.

2. An outspoken critic of misogynistic rap lyrics, Scott hosted a seminar in 2006 at the Essence Music Festival in Houston, Texas. “It is dirty, inappropriate, inadequate, unhealthy and polluted,” she said of degrading hip-hop lyrics. “We can demand more.”

MUST READ: 4 Inspirational Quotes From Michael Clarke Duncan

3. Originally a spoken-word poet, Scott was discovered by Roots drummer and bandleader Questlove.

4. Scott co-wrote the Roots song “You Got Me,” which won a Grammy for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group. She won her first Grammy in 2005, taking home Best Urban/Alternative R&B Performance for “Cross My Mind.”

5. To hone her acting skills, Scott took part in a Canadian production of the hit Broadway musical Rent.

6. Scott appears alongside the Roots and fellow soul singer Erykah Badu in the 2006 documentary Dave Chappelle’s Block Party.

7. The U.K. house duo Goldtrix scored a no. 1 hit on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart with their cover of Scott’s “It’s Love,” renamed “It’s Love (Trippin’).”

MUST READ: Best Gospel Stories Of Summer 2012

8. Scott is an unusually gifted singer, and according to her booking company, she “has a very rare facility to hit notes in the sixth and seventh octave, as displayed on songs such as ‘Gimmie’ where she hits a D6, and on ‘Spring Summer Feeling’ where she hits a C7 note with full vibrato.”

9. Scott has also done voice-over work, and in 2010, she played the X-Men character Storm on the BET cartoon series Black Panther.

10. Scott runs the Blues Babes Foundation, a charity she helped launch with $100,000 of her own money. Blues Babe aims to help young minority students attend college.

Like Elev8 On Facebook To Enrich Your Mind, Body & Soul!

10 Things You Didn’t Know About Jill Scott  was originally published on elev8.com