Jazmine Sullivan
Heaux Tales EP
RCA
Listen Below | Update 2/11/22: Listen to the Deluxe Edition Below
A couple of disclaimers upfront: First, Jazmine Sullivan’s Heaux Tales contains strong language and frank depictions of graphic sexuality. This program is specifically designed to be heard by adults and may be unsuitable for children under 17. But if Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion make you clutch your pearls, it’s not for you either. Maybe keep to Taylor Swift’s evermore and have a blessed day.
Second, this is a woman’s work, crafted to communicate with women about women’s business. Technically, I’m not even supposed to discuss it while in possession of a Y chromosome. So do not tell them I told you, but this is what I heard. Okay, so she was like, “Bitch. Get it together, bitch… You gettin’ sloppy, girl.” So I’m leanin’ in, right? Because all triumphs of storytelling and self-disclosure begin with drunken, albeit delightfully sung, self-talk about not knowing who you slept with or where you woke up (“Bodies”).
Now, before you judge, Sullivan has given women permission to be vulnerable, bold, imperfect, and unashamed: “I wrote Heaux Tales to give voice to every woman,” she proclaims in the album’s promo spot. “We're deserving of respect whether we work as CEO of a company, or if we strippin'… It's about a woman deciding how she wants to present herself to the world and not being told or influenced by anyone but her goddamn self.”
It’s a heavy album—an EP actually—but you wouldn’t know it if you only listened to the songs (produced in part by KeY Wane, JoeLogic, and Dilemma who worked on the GRAMMY-nominated Reality Show in 2015). The thing that really ties Heaux Tales together is the interludes. Though on the surface, some seem titillating and gossipy, each is a raw confession that gives context and heft to the songs that chase it.
For instance, I, like a lot of fans, didn’t know how to react to the atypical lead single “Lost One,” an unfussy acoustic ballad about grappling with regret after sabotaging a relationship. So we put a pin in it for later. When heard in sequence on the EP however, the preceding interlude spins a spellbinding narrative about a lesbian engagement felled by inexplicable infidelity. Suddenly “Lost One” made sense. That’s the effect each interlude has on a body of work that is unusually robust for its roughly 30 minutes.
By contrast, “Pick Up Your Feelings” is absolutely flammable. The soulful, bristling, DZL-produced second single is exactly what fans expect Sullivan to kick in the door with. Justifiably short patience and unrepentant contempt make it a distant cousin to Beyoncé’s “Sorry,” if not a blood sister. Following the tradition of vitriolic singles “10 Seconds” (2010), “Dumb” (2014), and “Bust Your Windows” (2008), Sullivan turns in a flawless performance while stepping into her power and booting a “double-dipping” dude out of her apartment and her life. It’s brutal, but the vocal candy she hides between each reading of “pick up your” and “feelings” makes you beg to be cussed out over and over.
The project’s third single “Girl Like Me” also features renaissance woman H.E.R. on guitar and vocals. Their shimmering harmonies counterbalance the doleful tune’s despondency (“You gon' make me a gold digger / Maybe I should look like a stripper… / You leave me with no choice / I can't do this good girl shit no more”).
What Sullivan repeatedly does is examine reviled female stereotypes in order to humanize them. If you’ve ever vilified one before, you may find yourself rooting for them, identifying with them, and hopefully questioning the systems that made them what you’re taught to despise. “Precious’ Tale” infuses depth and dimension to the gold digger trope, revealing a capable woman navigating a hostile world on her own.
It’s the perfect primer for “The Other Side,” a guitar-forward fantasy about making it out of poverty (“I'mma move to Atlanta / I’mma find me a rapper / He gon' buy me a booty / Let me star in the movie / I'mma keep up my fitness / I'mma start me a business / And I'll never be broke again, strugglin' / God as my witness”).
Another taboo that gets deconstructed over sizzling gospel organ in “Donna’s Tale” is the fact that when power dynamics meet sexuality, the sex can become transactional. That is to say, it’s probably not your job to have sex in exchange for money, but if the person you’re having sex with is giving you something else you want? You might be a heaux… and ya mama too. (Donna’s words. Not mine. Gotta take that up with her.)
Once Donna and her cackling girlfriends have preached, testified, and laid the groundwork, the low-riding “Pricetags” can sidle up and make your face even more flush than before (“Hundreds, hundreds in my hand / Want it, want it / Spend them bands / Yeah, I’mma take all I can get / That money keeps that pussy wet”). Its dark humor is exaggerated and fun, and Anderson .Paak’s pimp sauce only adds flavor to a song you already want to lick off of your fingertips.
If this is too much, we won’t get into the way Sullivan channels the churchy passion of Karen Clark Sheard, but does so on a duet with Ari Lennox about what all they would like done to them, before they sit—ahem—“On It.” (Insert eggplant emoji.)
For a lesser artist, doing songs this explicit would seem like a thin gimmick for attention, but Jazmine Sullivan is far above that weight class. What has to be reckoned with is that, heaux or no, Sullivan is a preeminent standard bearer in modern R&B. The deft choices she makes with her instrument are rooted in the traditions of Black music of the past. The way she’s adapting it to address present day concerns on Heaux Tales guarantees her a place in the future. But I’m not supposed to be in women’s business, so you didn’t hear none of this from me, beloved.
Notable Tracks: “Girl Like Me” | “Pick Up Your Feelings” | “The Other Side”
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