Jazmine Sullivan says making music in the recording studio is an “intensely personal experience” for her.
The R&B songstress opened up in an interview with Rolling Stone magazine about her songwriting process, which includes soul searching and channeling her personal drama into her music.
She is able to “talk about things that (she) wouldn’t normally have talked about” through her music.
Toward the end of 2019, her mother, Pam, who once co-managed Jazmine’s music career, was diagnosed with breast cancer.
Jazmine also endured years in an abusive relationship that ended not long before the pandemic shut down the music industry last year.
“When I’m making music and I’m in a studio, it really feels so personal. I’m just literally telling my story, and it’s for me. I know people are going to hear it, but it’s just me getting out these thoughts and these feelings that are inside of me.”
Jazmine’s EP album, Heaux Tales, released on January 8, 2021, is described as her “fourth and bleakest” album to date.
Heaux Tales won Album of the Year at the 2021 BET Awards, and spawned the hit songs “Lost One” and “Pick Up Your Feelings.”
The EP is her first release since 2015’s critically-acclaimed Reality Show.
Themes on Heaux Tales include feminism, sexuality, classism, and body-shaming, which are all personal to Jazmine.
Among Jazmine’s favorite songs on her 14-song EP is “The Other Side” – which tackles the contradictory body image feelings that women experience.
The 34-year-old Philadelphia native topped Billboard’s R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart in 2008 with her debut album, Fearless.
The album was certified gold by the RIAA and spawned four singles, including “Bust Your Windows” and “Need U Bad.”
