After starring in everything from TV’s First Wives Club to the RZA-directed film Love Beats Rhyme, actress and singer Jill Scott is making her long-awaited return to music with To Whom This May Concern, her first album since 2015’s Woman. You can hear the lead single “Beautiful People” and see the gorgeous cover by visual artist Marcellus below.

“Finally my new album entitled TO WHOM THIS MAY CONCERN drops Feb. 13th!!!!” Scott wrote on Instagram. “PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE and THANK YOU for your patience and your listening ears.” In a separate post about her collaborators, Scott noted that “Creating takes a village. I’m sharing my beautiful people most literally.”

Scott first broke through as a spoken-word artist in the late ‘90s before getting recruited by Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson to contribute vocals to his nascent Soulquarians collective. Scott’s first album, 2000’s Who Is Jill Scott?: Words and Sounds, Vol. 1, was nominated for Best R&B Album at the 2001 Grammy Awards. She spent 2023 on the road for a rescheduled Words and Sounds anniversary tour.

To Whom This May Concern will include features from Ab-Soul, J.I.D., Tierra Whack, and Too $hort, along with production by Om'Mas Keith, DJ Premier, Trombone Shorty, among others.

Read the Sunday Review of Who Is Jill Scott?: Words and Sounds, Vol. 1