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Even 15-time Grammy winners can be fan-girls. Clearly, that is the case with Alicia Keys. Her seventh studio album, which dropped on Friday, may be titled simply “Alicia,” but there is another R&B queen who gets a song named after her on the LP: Jill Scott. A great Scott, she must be. “Jill Scott,” featuring …
Even 15-time Grammy winners can be fan-girls.
Clearly, that is the case with Alicia Keys. Her seventh studio album, which dropped on Friday, may be titled simply “Alicia,” but there is another R&B queen who gets a song named after her on the LP: Jill Scott.
A great Scott, she must be.
“Jill Scott,” featuring the titular singer herself, is a sensual slow jam that might have you wonder who’s actually singing. It is indeed Keys, singing in her upper register and adopting a jazzy sultriness that is much more akin to Scott’s style.
It’s the ultimate homage — game recognizing game.
“I want you to love on me, love on me, love on me in the daytime / Like you do at bedtime / So they can all know,” sings Keys, who co-wrote the song with the man who loves on her — husband Swizz Beatz — as well as Scott.
Then Scott, herself a three-time Grammy winner, delivers the spoken-word interlude: “Ooh, when you are righteously loving somebody / And that somebody is righteously loving you too / It’s a vibration / That everybody, everywhere / Can’t help but receive.”
Vibration received, Jill.
The “A Long Walk” singer isn’t the only guest artist on “Alicia.” Tanzania’s Diamond Platinumz bops with Keys on the reggae-flavored “Wasted Energy,” while England’s Sampha injects some moody mystery into “3 Hour Drive.”
Rapper Tierra Whack kicks her flow on “Me x 7,” and Swedish singer-songwriter Snoh Aalegra rocks with Keys on the soulful ballad “You Save Me.”
Another Grammy winner, Miguel, joins Keys on the sexy first single “Show Me Love,” which was released way back in September 2019. Meanwhile, on “So Done,” 22-year-old Khalid holds his own with 39-year-old Alicia in making grown R&B.
