Who Is Jazmine Sullivan?

Setting: South Street Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Date: Saturday April 26 2008

What a perfect place and setting for my first audio encounter with this powerful soul-felt songstress. It was Penn Relays weekend 2008. (I'm starting this post like it was the night before Christmas lol) Well the day was a total bust. I traveled all the way from New York only to get to UPenn's stadium and sit outside for 4 hours. After twiddling my thumbs for half the day I decided to take a trip to South Street to visit a good friend (hey Holli) and scarf down some cheese fries from Ishkabibbles. Holli was super anxious to let me hear a few songs from up and coming Philadelphia artist Jazmine Sullivan. Knowing how thirsty I am for new music, Holli definitely fed into my eagerness by handing her iPod right over. Needless to say I heard one song and that's all she wrote.(I promise I'll stay away from the cliches) Her debut single Need You Bad made me think about my boyfriend and really that's all it took for me to evaluate and conclude that she is the change we've all needed. As soon as I got to work Monday morning I stalked her on iTunes... NOTHING! I ended up surfing the Internet trying to find more of her music... still not much. Finally after 2 weeks, her song arrived on iTunes.

Why is she better than everyone else? Well I'm just tired of talentless, pretty face, "I'll just dress nice and dance half decent" artists. Her voice tells a story, her sound is reminiscent of Lauryn Hill, and her image is non traditional. In my opinion it takes a lot of guts to release a R&B song over reggae instrumentals as your first single. Most die hard R&B fans aren't prepared for that blend. Sullivan's love songs touch on everything from cheating, to breakups, back to reconciliation. Here are a few lyrics from Bust your Windows

I bust the windows out ya car
And no it didn't mend my broken heart
I'll probably always have these ugly scars
But right now I don't care about that part

I bust the windows out ya car
After I saw you laying next to her
I didn't wanna but I took my turn
I'm glad I did it cause you had to learn

I must admit it helped a little bit
To think of how you felt when you saw it
I didn't know I had that much strength
But I'm glad you know what happens when...

I like this chick! One worry of mine is that they will try and make her loose weight thus diverting attention away from her talent and onto her appearance.(This industry is known for its superficial, delusional standards of beauty) Personally I think she's just perfect the way she is!
Crisette Michelle vs. Jazmine Sullivan
Hands down Jazmine Sullivan wins! I can't quite put my finger on it, but everything about this girl seems genuine.
1)It could be the fact she did a remake of Andre 3000's Prototype from the album The Love Below
-OR-
2) It could be the fact that she was absolutely adorable on the Apollo (see You tube video below)

I've been surfing around the Internet and found out a lot of people are knocking her for sounding very similar to the legendary Lauryn Hill. (I agree she does sound a lot like her) Well, you can't help what your voice sounds like and in all honesty we need a Lauryn Hill resurrection. (or something close to it)
There's no Wikipedia submission so I guess that leaves me sourceless (Ahhh that's terrible) So you can find out more about J. Sullivan on her page (http://www.myspace.com/jazminesullivan) I've included a few of the songs iLike on the media player below. And that's how great music spreads people!
Here's a throw back of ole girl singing at the Apollo. I'm sure she's thrilled to see this resurface :o)


Songs iLike
Bust your Windows
Lions & Tigers
Prototype (yes its the Andre 3000 remake)
Need You Bad remix f/ T.I.