What happened at the White House Wednesday was active and absolutely ridiculous but the real girls know that MS. J. SULLIVAN is the one really airing this thang out. Shouts out to her for sparing me the few bits of edges and baby hair that I have left hanging on by a thread as I type this.
Sullivan regularly takes breaks from us, something I can certainly respect and relate to so this is the first project we’re getting from her since her sophomore album, ‘Reality Show,’ back in 2015. And I’ll be honest, I did not give it the attention it deserved outside of spinning ‘Let It Burn’ on repeat and playing ‘Lions, Tigers, and Bears’ for my dad who is madly in love with the songstress. Before you start the judgement and eye rolls, I’m spinning the block as I edit this.
Dedication and commitment are qualities that I just cannot help but honor so if you need to take time to live a little so you can write music that has me crying and singing my heart strings loose in my shower, damn it so be it. I can’t believe that this is even the truth but there were really some crazy people that didn’t think that Sullivan deserved a seat at the table with Beyonce, Brandy, Whitney Houston, and Mariah Careys of the world but baby, a seat? She has built the seat, the table, and herself like someone’s great aunty who has been blessed with the slow roast gumbo recipe that’s been passed down for generations and perfected with everyone who can get their hands on it. Straight up, home grown soul! There’s no way that all the vocal ancestors and God himself didn’t bless this woman with the gift of penmanship, the harmonica-like runs, the voice control, the power, and my absolute favorite the jazzy scatting.
Now, for some of Sullivan’s fans, myself and the whole rest of the world are just now starting to wake up and give her the recognition she deserves. I know people who believe that she is better than some of the names I mentioned earlier, and so for those of us that were asleep, Sullivan is making sure we stay woke.
Around August, Sullivan dropped ‘Lost One’ and my, my, my. This was the one that hit like a heart attack. I remember the photo circulating the internets and everybody waiting on the track. I’d just started working overnight so you know I was stuck behind the computer on classes but, no sooner than I let it spin through the first time, my co worker was checking on me to see if I was ok. Baby, I was not, I was a complete mess! I was at the brink of my breakup and one lyric after another, I broke. Sis had me boo hoo crying on maybe the second night of my job. In 3 minutes, magically, she was able to say exactly how it feels to have lost something worth having and what you might say to them, even if it’s a ridiculous request, “Please don’t forget about me, Try not to love no one.”
No sooner than you can get your feelings back together, she doubles back around with ‘Pick Up Your Feelings’ in November. My good friend Nieema and I were waiting on this drop like addicts and baby, when I made it to her fresh off work and she played first, the studio version, then the LIVE both my jaw and edges, rest their souls were on the floor, useless! I want to say how she was teasing us but I would be remiss to mention how not only did she drop LO but she also dropped a LIVE visual and then again dropped both for PUYF. Don’t ask that, you already know she ate! And at this point, we had some cover art and a date for the project.
Top of the year, January 8, goodbye 2020, hello Heaux Tales!
The Tracklist
Bodies
Antoinette’s Tale
Pick Up Your Feelings
Ari’s Tale
Put It Down
On It - Ari Lennox
Donna’s Tale
Price Tags - Anderson Paak
Rashida’s Tale
Lost One
Precious’ Tale
The Other Side
Amanda’s Tale
Girl Like Me - H. E. R.
Bodies was the lifestyle mantra after I came out of my second serious, long-term relationship. I stopped giving any type of fuck and the nights got later and later, the mornings got earlier and earlier. I knew these dudes were for whatever, on whatever, and I just wanted what I wanted, risky times!
Pick Up Your Feelings is what I believe to be the second stage of the breakup, when you’ve licked your own wounds, maybe cried to a best friend or two, drank it all away, bounced back into fitness, and finally got cute and popped out and just so happened to walk past a mirror and look at your reflection long enough for her to remind you that, you are that bitch, and to hell with him.
When a song like Put It Down happens to you, and you’re looking around confused, with your wig straight twisted, unable to figure out how you got in all this, just know, it’s too late. The only two times you’re angry is when you can’t seem to make it to that man and his mini man fast enough and when your friends finally find a way to tell you how dumb you really acting behind him.
When they’re applying that pressure, looking Godly, listening and reassuring, got a self care routine, communicating, dressing and smelling good, on his boss man-ish, whew, On It, on him, at home, on the couch, on the counter, nah. But you know!
Price Tags left me kind of stuck to be honest. It’s not a repeat offender for me yet but it’s growing on me.
If you don’t have one that got away, you would not understand. And if you do, the Lost One is tough. When this dropped, whew, although he wasn’t this for me, I had to make sure my ex-boyfriend at the time heard this one. That’s a sting that doesn’t go away easily, if it ever even goes away, and sometimes it works out that you’re better for that particular person after it’s a little too late. And backwards is not a viable option.
10 milly is not a lot to ask for, if you ask me. And 3M a month for the rest of my life is more than reasonable, are you kidding me? The Other Side is the ode to yourself that even if it is wild as hell, you’re pledging time to entertain a steadfast journey towards inner peace, fitness, fashion, travel, love, bigger business, flourishing friendships, family and more!
What was the reason? Quite literally. You fool around and find yourself in a long term entanglement with an idiot and start to ask yourself all the wrong questions, second guessing all of the unique things that make you, you because, what was the reason? I can’t take this Girl Like Me off of repeat.
As if she wasn’t loud enough she spoke to the liberated, bonafide, daring, and bold woman in all of us in her ‘Heaux Tales’ audio and visual series. The audio clips were recounts of memories of love, heartbreak, pain, sexual liberation, and the power of dickmitization from a few different women including Ms. Lennox herself, who is also featured in a song on the EP.
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