The Rundown: Jazmine Sullivan, Reality Show
Singer tackles hood love and fame struggles on her third LP.
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The Rundown: Jazmine Sullivan, Reality Show - It's apparent songstress Jazmine Sullivan didn't follow through with a proclamation to give up her singing career. Though she did take a five-year hiatus, the Missy Elliott-backed chanteuse has re-emerged with a third LP, which takes a funky, tongue-in-cheek approach to hood love and fame/life struggle. Click on through this track-by-track look at the Philly vocalist's latest. (Photo: RCA Records)
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"Dumb" feat. Meek Mill - For an opener, Jazmine lays out a sonic message for a deceitful, cheating beau: "You may think you fooling me, but I ain't dumb." Riding a "Jesus Walks" flavored track, the singer recruits Meek to play her mack-daddy boo. (Photos from left: Paras Griffin/Getty Images, Angela Weiss/Getty Images for Puma)
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"Mascara" - "My hair and my a** is fake," the singer confesses. "But so what, I get my rent paid with it." On this smooth and simmering track, Jazmine flaunts her swag about milking players for their riches. (Photo: Paras Griffin/Getty Images)
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"Brand New" - Call this track the rap dream blues as Jazmine, armed with a funky jazz-tinged rhythm, waxes jadedly about the cliché of being boo-ed up with a rapper in the struggle to make it big. He promises you the world if he succeeds, then he does and turns his back on you. "I swear when n****s start makin' money they start actin' funny," she sweetly sings. (Photo: Josh Brasted/FilmMagic)
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"Silver Lining" - Reaching into Michael Jackson's melody lane, Jazmine offers this cut for folks in the struggle of life hoping to get that job, wishing to hit the lottery or so down and out that it's time to rob and steal. (Photo: Mark Davis/BET/Getty Images for BET)
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"#HoodLove" - Jazmine transforms into that ride-or-die hood chick who gets down with her thug beau in what ever criminal dirt he's doing. "I got a 45 in my Louis bag, yeah," she explains. "Imma always ride for my man, yeah." (Photo: Rob Kim/BET/Getty Images for BET)
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"Let It Burn" - With a melody lifted straight from After 7's 1989 hit "Ready or Not," this cut delivers the unwavering emotion of the LP. Jazmine belts out about a strong love she she has for her man. "I wanna be good to you," she effuses. "Call me crazy but I think I found the love of my life." (Photo: Andy Kropa/Getty Images for Communications Strategies)
Photo By Andy Kropa/Getty Images for Communications Strategies
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"Veins" - For this hazy, trippy track, Jazmine reaches for a well-tried R&B metaphor when she sings of how addicted she is to her man's love. (Photo: WENN)
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"Forever Don't Last" - "And I tried to believe that we could make it," Jazmine belts on this cut. "But tryin' don't work so I just have to face it." Accoustic guitar plucks and a swaying background chorus fuel the desperate pleas of this song. In a word: heartfelt. (Photo: WENN.com)
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"Stupid Girl" - Jazmine invokes the sound of '60s rock-pop group The Shangri-Las for this song, which finds her melodically admitting she's one of those ladies who willingly falls for the bad boy. She knows it's wrong but she's just what you might call a stupid girl. (Photo: Sean Gardner/Getty Images)
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