What’s in a name? Well, if the name happens to include a reference to a musical genre, it could mean a whole lot. Jazmine Sullivan’s mother remembers having a sense that the child she was carrying twenty-one years ago was born to sing and as a lover of jazz, she named her daughter accordingly. While there are elements of jazz in her phrasing - sultry shades of great vocalists like Phyllis Hyman and Sarah Vaughan; replete with a delivery that has often been compared to the likes of Lauryn Hill and Mary J. Blige, the Philadelphia-born Jazmine is very much an artist for today as her exciting first J Records’ album, Fearless, illustrates.

Championed by the likes of Stevie Wonder, Missy Elliott, Faith Evans, and (fellow Philadelphians) Kindred among others, the statuesque and beautiful Jazmine is all at once smart, sassy, insightful, down to earth and very real. As the primary songwriter on Fearless, Jazmine brings her own experiences and observations on life and love with vivid storytelling imagery to her songs. Producers include Salaam Remi, Dirty Harry, Jack Splash, Stargate and Missy Elliott who – with Lamb - produced the first infectious single, “Need U Bad.” Says Jazmine, “I wasn’t familiar with reggae but Missy said ‘Let’s try this out!’ So I wrote to the track as soon as I heard it and then Missy brought in Pepa from Salt-N-Pepa to do the chant.” The resulting track became a newfound hit at radio and quickly established Jazmine as a fresh voice for the summer music scene and beyond.