Jill Scott is back with To Whom This May Concern, her first studio album in more than a decade, arriving February 13, 2026 with 19 tracks of grown‑woman neo‑soul, spoken word and jazz‑funk. Critics are calling it one of her most adventurous and empowering projects yet, weaving themes of healing, middle‑aged romance, divorce, community and self‑accountability into lush live‑band production and guest spots from Tierra Whack, Too $hort, JID, Trombone Shorty and more. You can read more in Variety’s review of To Whom This May Concern.
The album opens with cuts like “Dope Shit” and “Be Great” before moving into standout single “Beautiful People,” which praises collective love while side‑eyeing “algorithms and wicked, wicked systems of things,” and “Offdaback,” where Scott literally calls ancestors by name to connect their sacrifices to her present‑day freedoms.
She flips the tone on pieces like the spoken‑word “Disclaimer,” a funny, raunchy warning about singing along too hard, and “The Math,” which turns self‑help into literal instructions to subtract fakery, multiply kindness and interrogate your own habits instead of blaming everything on trauma.
Elsewhere, songs like “A Universe” and “Liftin’ Me Up” explore late‑in‑life love and spiritual support with a patience that feels very different from her early‑2000s work, while “BPOTY,” “Me 4” and “To B Honest” tackle corrupt institutions, messy breakups and radical honesty over funkier, more experimental backdrops.
Across the record, reviewers say Scott sounds fully in control of her voice and story, using rich arrangements and candid storytelling to deliver what some are calling a soul “playbook” for surviving uncertain times.
