This is Fresh Air. I'm Tanya Mosley, and my guest today is singer, songwriter, and actor Jill Scott. She released her sixth studio album, to whom this may concern last month, her first new music in a decade. Here's a single from the album called Pressa. I wanted you to be mine in the daytime as well as the night.

But you needed to hide me and I just

don't sit right

I wasn't the aesthetic

I guess I guess I get it

so much pressure

to appear just like them

pretty and cosmetic

Elementary alphabetic

So much pressure

To appear just like them

Just like them

Just like them. Just like them. So much pressure to appear just like them. And being recently went to number one on the billboard adult R&B airplay chart. And it's about the weight of being asked to look, sound, and move through the world a certain way, and being desired

in private, but not claimed in public. And the quiet courage it takes to stop performing for

someone else's comfort. Jill Scott has been making music for more than 25 years. The story goes

that Quest's love of the roots first discovered her is part of Philadelphia's spoken word scene.

Her 2000 debut, Who is Jill Scott, Words and Sounds, Volume 1, answered its own question with double platinum sales,

three Grammy nominations, and a sound that has helped define Neo-Soul.

Since then, Scott has won three Grammys,

written a best-selling book of poetry, and built an acting career that has spanned from HBO's

the number one lady's detective agency, BET Plus's First Wives Club, and the role of Sheila

and Tyler Perry's Why Did I Get Married?

...