Jazmine Sullivan

Heaux Tales

Ending such a lengthy wait for new material was never going to be easy, but Jazmine Sullivan makes her Everest-like task look deceptively simple. A woman speaking her truth in poetic, soulful fashion, ‘Heaux Tales’ could be her defining chapter.

Sullivan is often overlooked as the R&B master she is, but her latest project displays the vocal range of legends before her, demonstrating her ability to capture the qualms of life and love relevant to the realities of dating in the age of the internet.

For a lesser artist, doing songs this explicit would seem like a thin gimmick for attention, but Jazmine Sullivan is far above that weight class. What has to be reckoned with is that, heaux or no, Sullivan is a preeminent standard bearer in modern R&B.

Heaux Tales is a provocative return for Sullivan that showcases her incredible knack for storytelling.

Though brief, with a runtime of just over 30-minutes, the EP shows Sullivan crafting a complete constellation of love and loss.

The conceptual EP Heaux Tales seems to be a point of personal and artistic metamorphosis for Jazmine Sullivan.

Given the brevity and makeup -- just over half an hour, with only 27 minutes of music -- Heaux Tales doesn't have the heft of Fearless, Love Me Back, or Reality Show, but few contemporary R&B LPs twice its length are as substantive.