29 June 2016

top 100 of the '00s | 75. jill scott - "a long walk"

When I first heard this track, it was from seeing the music video on VH1 during a new music showcase. I was a sophomore in high school. I was fixated, because I had never heard a song with this exact sound. It wasn't really jazz and it wasn't really R&B, but it certainly had elements of both. (I would not learn the term "neo-soul" until three years later at the college radio station.)

Moreso, though, I was fascinated with the lyrics. I remember listening to her sing for nearly five minutes about how she just wanted to take a walk with some dude through the park, and talk to him about various rhyming things, but really being thrown for a loop when she added "or just be silent."

"Is this what adult relationships are like? Do people just sit with each other in silence? Is it that big a deal to go walking through the park?" These were my 14- to 15-year-old concerns with this track at that time. As an adult now, I of course understand a bit more where Ms. Scott is coming from (we can certainly all appreciate a little silence at the right times), but the fact that she was able to make my brain churn when I had no perspective at all stands to me as a testament to her power as an artist and this song's accessibility.