''Heaux Tales'' is the fourth studio album by American R&B singer

Jazmine Sullivan Jazmine Marie Sullivan (born April 9, 1987) is an American R&B singer and songwriter. She has won two Grammy Awards, a ''Billboard'' Women in Music Award, and two BET Awards over the course of her career. In 2022, ''Time'' placed her on their ...

. Released by

RCA Records RCA Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Group Corporation. It is one of Sony Music's four flagship labels, alongside Columbia Records (its former longtime rival), Arista Records and Epic R ...

on January 8, 2021, it was her first project since 2015's critically-acclaimed ''

Reality Show Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring ordinary people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 1990s ...

''. It includes features from

Ari Lennox Courtney Shanade Salter (born March 26, 1991), known professionally as Ari Lennox, is an American R&B singer-songwriter from Washington, D.C. She signed with J. Cole's Dreamville Records, an imprint of Interscope Records as the former label's ...

, Anderson .Paak, and

H.E.R. Gabriella Sarmiento Wilson (born June 27, 1997), known professionally as H.E.R. (pronounced "her" and standing for "Having Everything Revealed") is an American Contemporary R&B, R&B singer. She has won an Academy Awards, Academy Award, a Child ...

The album was primarily recorded in Sullivan's

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

home. The project has also been variably identified as a "

concept album A concept album is an album whose tracks hold a larger purpose or meaning collectively than they do individually. This is typically achieved through a single central narrative or theme, which can be instrumental, compositional, or lyrical. Som ...

" and "schematic, a successor to

didactic Didacticism is a philosophy that emphasises instructional and informative qualities in literature, art, and design. In art, design, architecture, and landscape, didacticism is a conceptual approach that is driven by the urgent need to explain. ...

concept albums like ''

The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill ''The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill'' is the debut solo studio album by American rapper and singer Lauryn Hill. It was released on August 19, 1998, by Ruffhouse Records and Columbia Records. Recorded after the Fugees embarked on a hiatus, the a ...

''". Structurally, six "

spoken word Spoken word is an oral poetic performance art that is based mainly on the poem as well as the performer's aesthetic qualities. It is a 20th-century continuation of an oral tradition, ancient oral artistic tradition that focuses on the aesthetic ...

interludes" "are followed by songs that flesh them out as character studies". The themes explored include

feminism Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideology, ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social gender equality, equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that modern soci ...

sexuality Human sexuality is the way people experience and express themselves sexually. This involves biological, psychological, physical, erotic, emotional, social, or spiritual feelings and behaviors. Because it is a broad term, which has varied ...

classism Class discrimination, also known as classism, is prejudice or discrimination on the basis of social class. It includes individual attitudes, behaviors, systems of policies and practices that are set up to benefit the upper class at the expense of ...

, and body-shaming among other lyrical topics supported by narrative interludes between each song. The project received widespread critical acclaim and was also a commercial success, debuting at number four on the US ''Billboard'' 200 chart, marking Sullivan's highest position on the chart. ''Heaux Tales'' won Album of the Year at the 2021 BET Awards and the

2021 Soul Train Music Awards The 2021 Soul Train Music Awards took place on November 28, 2021, to recognize the best in soul, R&B and Hip-Hop music. The ceremony aired on BET, BET Her, VH1 and MTV2, with actors Tisha Campbell & Tichina Arnold hosting the ceremony for the fou ...

; it was named Album of the Year by ''

NPR National Public Radio (NPR) is an American public broadcasting organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It serves as a national Radio syndication, syndicator to a network of more ...

'', ''

Entertainment Weekly ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American online magazine, digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, ...

LA Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper in the U.S. and the large ...

'' and ''

Pitchfork A pitchfork or hay fork is an agricultural tool used to pitch loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves. It has a long handle and usually two to five thin tines designed to efficiently move such materials. The term is also applie ...

''. The album won

Best R&B Album The Grammy Award for Best R&B Album is an honor presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards, to recording artists for quality works on albums in the Contemporary R&B, R&B mus ...

at the

64th Grammy Awards The 64th Annual Grammy Awards ceremony was held at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas on April 3, 2022. It recognized the best recordings, compositions, and artists of the eligibility year, running from September 1, 2020, to September 30, ...

, and its single "

Pick Up Your Feelings "Pick Up Your Feelings" is a song by American singer Jazmine Sullivan, released on November 20, 2020, as the second single from her fourth studio album, '' Heaux Tales'' (2021). The song was written by Sullivan, Audra Mae, Kyle Coleman, Michael Ho ...

" was nominated for

Best R&B Song The Grammy Award for Best R&B Song (sometimes known as the R&B Songwriter's Award) has been awarded since 1969. From 1969 to 2000, it was known as the Grammy Award for Best Rhythm and Blues Song. Beyoncé has won it a record five times, while Ba ...

and won for

Best R&B Performance The Grammy Award for Best R&B Performance is an award presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards. According to the 54th Grammy Awards description guide it is designed for s ...

. The project was further promoted by the Heaux Tales Tour in 2022, Sullivan's third US headlining tour. Sullivan released the deluxe edition of the project, titled ''Heaux Tales, Mo' Tales: The Deluxe'', on February 11, 2022.

Background

Since establishing her recording career in 2008, Sullivan has been known to take long hiatuses between releases. ''

Complex Complex commonly refers to: * Complexity, the behaviour of a system whose components interact in multiple ways so possible interactions are difficult to describe ** Complex system, a system composed of many components which may interact with each ...

'' magazine reports that

Dev Hynes Devonté Hynes (born David Joseph Michael Hynes, 23 December 1985), also known as Blood Orange and formerly Lightspeed Champion, is an English singer, songwriter, record producer, composer and director based in New York City. From 2004 to 2006, ...

Key Wane Dwane Marshall Weir II (born July 12, 1990) is an American hip hop/R&B producer and songwriter, professionally known as Key Wane. Wane has produced for artists such as Big Sean, Jazmine Sullivan, Beyoncé, Drake, Jhene Aiko, Wale, Lil Wayne, ...

, DZL, and others contributed to the production on the project. The promotional rollout for ''Heaux Tales'' included the premiere of her installment of

Tiny Desk Concerts ''Tiny Desk Concerts'' is a video series of live concerts hosted by NPR Music at the desk of former ''All Songs Considered'' host Bob Boilen in Washington, D.C. The first ''Tiny Desk Concert'' came about in 2008 after Boilen and NPR Music edit ...

series on January 8, 2021. Sullivan stated in an interview with

NPR Music NPR Music is a project of National Public Radio, an American privately and publicly funded non-profit membership media organization, that launched in November 2007 to present public radio music programming and original editorial content for music ...

, "particularly on this project, I was influenced by a few women today that I felt like were busting through those barriers and helping me to feel more confident in who I am," citing artists

Cardi B Belcalis Marlenis Cephus (; born October 11, 1992), known professionally as Cardi B, is an American rapper. Noted for her unfiltered public image and lyrics, Cardi B is one of the most successful female rappers. From 2015 to early 2017, she ga ...

and

Lizzo Melissa Viviane Jefferson (born April 27, 1988), known professionally as Lizzo (), is an American singer and rapper. Born in Detroit, Michigan, she moved to Houston, Texas, with her family at the age of ten. After college, she moved to Minn ...

Singles

The first single, an acoustic ballad titled "

Lost One "Lost One" is the second single from Jay-Z's comeback album '' Kingdom Come''. It was released on November 21, 2006, and peaked at No. 58 on Billboard Hot 100. Its music video was released on December 4, 2006, Jay-Z's 37th birthday and notably ...

", was released August 28, 2020 and peaked at number 9 on ''Billboard''s US Hot R&B Songs. The second single was "

", released November 20, 2020. In place of a traditional music video, RCA Records released a live acoustic performance. The song has since reached number 1 on ''Billboard''s Adult R&B Airplay Chart and number 9 on the R&B/Hip-Hop airplay chart. The song also peaked at number 75 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100. Both singles were performed on

BET Black Entertainment Television (BET) is an American basic cable channel targeting Black American audiences. It is the flagship channel of the BET Media Group, a subsidiary of Paramount Global's CBS Entertainment Group. Originally launched ...

during the

Soul Train Music Awards The Soul Train Music Awards is an annual music awards ceremony which honors the best in African-American culture, music and entertainment. It is produced by the production company of '' Soul Train'', the program from which it takes its name, and ...

on November 29, 2020. Sullivan released her third single, " Girl like Me", featuring

, on January 6, 2021, marking the first time she has ever duetted with a woman on one of her own recordings. The song debuted and peaked at number 96 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 and at number 29 on ''Billboard''s Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. "On It," duet with

, also peaked at number 40 on ''Billboard''s Hot R&B/Hip-Hop and R&B/Hip-Hop airplay charts despite not being released as a single.

Critical reception

''Heaux Tales'' received a score of 81 out of 100 from review aggregate site

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

based on nine reviews, indicating "universal acclaim". ''

Vulture A vulture is a bird of prey that scavenges on carrion. There are 23 extant species of vulture (including condors). Old World vultures include 16 living species native to Europe, Africa, and Asia; New World vultures are restricted to Nort ...

'' lauded its displays of women's strength as seen in its "interludes

ith The Ith () is a ridge in Germany's Central Uplands which is up to 439 m high. It lies about 40 km southwest of Hanover and, at 22 kilometers, is the longest line of crags in North Germany. Geography Location The Ith is i ...

women like fellow singer Ari Lennox talking about

femininity Femininity (also called womanliness) is a set of attributes, behaviors, and Gender roles, roles generally associated with women and girls. Femininity can be understood as Social construction of gender, socially constructed, and there is also s ...

and sexual empowerment." Alex Suskind of ''

'' called the project "a punchy concept album that tackles blissful romance, sexual freedom — and the complex moments that arise between." Bobby Carter of NPR hailed it "a bold and timely conversation piece addressing truths regarding relationships, sex, social norms, self-worth and a myriad of other topics that women grapple with." Wongo Okon of

Uproxx Uproxx Studios (stylized as ''UPROXX'') is an American music, entertainment and popular culture website and content studio. It was founded in 2008 by Jarret Myer and Brian Brater. The website was acquired in 2014 by Woven Digital (which later ...

praised it for casting "a light on the goalpost-shifting standards of this

patriarchal society Patriarchy is a social system in which positions of authority are primarily held by men. The term ''patriarchy'' is used both in anthropology to describe a family or clan controlled by the father or eldest male or group of males, and in fem ...

" while holding "the characteristics to be labeled a classic in the future." Mankaprr Conteh of ''

'' gave the EP the site's Best New Music distinction.

Accolades

Commercial performance

''Heaux Tales'' debuted at number four on the US ''Billboard'' 200 chart, earning 43,000

album-equivalent unit The album-equivalent unit, or album equivalent, often shortened to just unit, is a sales metric in the music industry that defines the number of streaming media, songs streamed and music download, songs downloaded equal to one Record sales, tradi ...

s (including 7,000 copies as pure album sales) in its first week, according to

MRC Data Luminate Data, LLC (formerly MRC Data and P-MRC Data) is a provider of music and entertainment data. Established as a joint-venture in 2020, it brought together Nielsen Music, Alpha Data (formerly BuzzAngle Music) and Variety Business Intellig ...

. This became Sullivan's second US top-ten album (following 2008's '' Fearless'') and her highest-charting album in the US. The album also debuted at number one on the US

Top R&B Albums Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums is a music chart published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine that ranks R&B and hip-hop albums based on sales in the United States and is compiled by Luminate. The chart debuted as Hot R&B LPs in the issue dated January 30, ...

and number two on the US

Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums is a music chart published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine that ranks R&B and hip-hop albums based on sales in the United States and is compiled by Luminate. The chart debuted as Hot R&B LPs in the issue dated January 30, ...

charts. It also accumulated a total of 46 million on-demand streams of the project's songs that week. On September 6, 2022, the EP was certified Gold by the RIAA.RIAA Gold & Platinum
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Track listing

Personnel

Musicians * Jon L. Smith – bass * Antoinette Henry – vocals *

– vocals * Donna Anderson – vocals * Anitra Sasser – vocals * Cheryl White – vocals * Rashida Northington – vocals * Jermaine Blandford – bass * Precious Daughtry – vocals *

Sam Wishkoski Sam Wishkoski is an American R&B producer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist best known for writing and/or producing "Good Old Days", " What If I Told You That I Love You", " Dance Off", and " It's You". Wishkoski became a protege of produ ...

– strings * Amanda Henderson – vocals * Isaac Wriston – bass Technical *

–

executive producer Executive producer (EP) is one of the top positions in the production of media. Depending on the medium, the executive producer may be concerned with management accounting or associated with legal issues (like copyrights or royalties). In film ...

* Dave Kutch –

mastering engineer Mastering is a form of audio post production which is the process of preparing and transferring recorded audio from a source containing the Audio mixing (recorded music), final mix to a data storage device called a master recording, the source ...

* Erik Madrid –

mixing engineer A mixing engineer (or simply mix engineer) is responsible for combining ("mixing") different sonic elements of an auditory piece into a complete rendition (also known as "final mix" or "mixdown"), whether in music, film, or any other content of a ...

Manny Marroquin Manny Marroquin (born September 21, 1971) is a Guatemalan-American record mixing engineer. He has been credited on albums for high-profile pop, R&B, hip hop and rock acts. He has worked with artists including Rihanna, Kanye West, Katy Perry ...

– mixing engineer * Chris Galland – mixing engineer * Joe Gallagher – mixing engineer ,

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who Invention, invent, design, build, maintain and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials. They aim to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while ...

* Justin Miller – engineer * Ben Thomas – engineer * Owen Modamwen – engineer * Dave Watson – engineer * Jhair "JHA" Lazo – engineer * Miki Tsutsumi – engineer * Dave "Pop" Watson–

recording engineer An audio engineer (also known as a sound engineer or recording engineer) helps to produce a recording or a live performance, balancing and adjusting sound sources using equalization, dynamics processing and audio effects, mixing, reproducti ...

* Aaron Mattes – assistant engineer * Jeremie Inhaber – assistant engineer * Scott Desmarais – assistant engineer * Alex Pyle – assistant engineer

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

References

{{Navboxes , title = Awards for ''Heaux Tales'' , titlestyle = background: lightblue , list = {{BET Award for Album of the Year {{NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Album {{Pitchfork 2021 albums Jazmine Sullivan albums RCA Records albums Albums produced by Cardiak Albums produced by Dev Hynes Albums produced by Key Wane Grammy Award for Best R&B Album Contemporary R&B EPs