Jazmine Sullivan: Fearless

When ‘Fearless’ begins, the first thing you’ll notice about Jazmine Sullivan is her voice. It’s smooth and husky, bringing to mind the image of velvet passing along your skin. What makes her sound even more alluring is the amount of conviction she fills her words with. Each line she belts out is strong and passionate, pulling the listener close until every emotion Jazmine conveys is felt and experienced. It takes some music artists their whole careers to reach this level of depth and at only twenty-one years old, Jazmine is already nearly there. It’s quite ironic, then, that Jazmine used to be teased because of her voice. Growing up in North Philadelphia, Jazmine lived inside Strawberry Mansion because of her father’s position as a curator. Says the singer, “I did not want to be different, but everything about me was. I lived in a mansion in the ghetto, and I was self-conscious about my voice.” During much of her younger years, Jazmine sung at her local church, even being offered a recording contract to sing gospel music, but she turned it down; not ready yet to take such a major step. Eventually she decided she wanted to explore genres of music other than gospel, so her mother began making her listen to classics such as Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder, and Donny Hathaway. “This was during the age of hip-hop,” says Sullivan, “so I wasn’t into it at first, but I soon began to appreciate it.” Listening to ‘Fearless’, it is clear that Jazmine was heavily influenced by her exposure to various music. “Bust Your Windows,” the first track off her album, is an example of that. With an orchestral sound, Jazmine sings about trashing her lover’s car windows after discovering him with another woman. “I bust the windows out ya car/ You should feel lucky that’s all I did,” she croons on the track. On “Lions, Tigers, & Bears,” one of the album’s stand out tracks, Jazmine sings about being unafraid of everything except loving another. The beat compliments Jazmine’s voice quite well, the trumpet, piano, and violins give the song a magical quality, reminiscent of Dorothy in ‘The Wizard of Oz’, where part of the hook is taken from. Throughout the album, Sullivan makes sure the listener understands that she’s not to be messed with. “I wish I never saw your punk a**,” she sings on “Live a Lie,” a song that has Jazmine singing about making the mistake of spending the night with a lover. Or in “Call Me Guilty,” when she says, fed up with her abusive relationship, “I’m sitting contemplating/Is it worth it?/ Should I take it?/ Take that shot and change my life/ Get that glock and take his life.” It’s lyrics like these that makes one wonder if she’s this badass in real life, but on tracks such as “Fear” and “Need U Bad,” Jazmine exposes her softer side, reassuring the listener that she’s not as tough as she seems. The only flaw that may be found on ‘Fearless’ is the third track, “My Foolish Heart,” which can sound repetitive after a while. Other than that, the album is a strong debut. With her voice, talent, and taste for music, Jazmine is already marking her territory and showing that she’s a force to be reckoned with.