Welcome everybody to another edition of So the Jerker on Songwriting.

It's your intrepid hosts, Brian and Simon here,

and joining us for episode 312 is an acclaimed American singer, songwriter, poet, actor,

and a leading voice in contemporary soul and R&B for the last quarter century.

During a distinguished career, she's worked with the likes of The Roots, Erica

Badoo, Carmen, Will Smith, Alicia Keys, Al Jiro and Dray. She recently dropped their hotly

anticipated sixth studio album, to whom this may concern, and it will not surprise you to

learn that it's a more than worthy addition to her canon. We're delighted to welcome

the sublime Jill Scott to the show.

Our guest was born in 1972 in Philadelphia and raised by her mother and grandmother in the north

of the city. Jill's first love was not music but poetry and it was a pivotal moment when in the

eighth grade, a teacher introduced her to the work of Nikki Giovanni. Later, her natural affinity

for language was further nurtured by her discovery of writers like

Jay California Cooper and Octavia Butler.

Jill planned to become a high school English teacher and for three years majored in education

at Temple University.

She began performing her poetry on the Philly Cafe scene while working on jobs, but was also

writing songs inspired by the likes of Stevie Wonder,

Prince and the Quincy Jones produced soundtrack to The Whiz. One night at a poetry slam in the

late 90s, a mutual friend introduced her to the Root Amir Questlove Thompson, who was blown away

by her unique interpretation of Jodice's Freaking You. As a result, Questlove enlisted Jill to co-write the 1999 Root Song, You Got Me,

which was recorded with Erica Badu on lead vocals and won a Grammy the following year.

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