“Get out (leave)/ right now, it’s the end of you and me/ It’s too late (now) and I can’t wait for you to be gone/ Cause I know about her (who), and I wonder (why) how I bought all the lies/ You said that you would treat me right, but you were just a waste of time.” That was a 13-year-old, a new artist called JoJo, and I was intrigued. I made a mental note and did some research on her when I got home. This white girl from Boston had soul, and I knew I had to get her album to see what she was really about. Her debut was self-titled, included 14 tracks and of course, turned me into a fan. I listened to that album every day and by the end of the week knew the lyrics to every song, including the ad-libs. Oh, Miss JoJo was on it!
“Not That Kinda Girl” caught my attention initially simply because it was different, independent—how I felt any girl should be in a relationship. She rapidly sang, “I’ma be up at the spot chilling with my crew, we’ll be hanging out/ Getting a little late you start bugging out, I don’t think it’s fair (no)/ You don’t like the clothes I wear, how I do my hair, I don’t really care/ ‘Cause it’s not for you, and I don’t have nothing to prove/ There can’t be any us if they can’t be any trust, nothing to discuss, no doubt, I’m not that kinda girl to let you play me out.”One of my favorites on this album was “Homeboy,” which told the story of a boy and a girl who are best friends wanting to be much more, and I loved it because it described my exact predicament. “More than his voice is changing now/ all that I see is re-arranging now.” Yes, she was quickly becoming close to being brown sugar, and with her rendition of SWV’s “Weak” combined with her own ballads, “Never Say Goodbye” and “Fairy Tales,” she had reached the promised land.
JoJo had certainly formed her own genre of music, soul pop, because she had this amazingly soulful voice but the arrangement of her songs was very mainstream pop. Her second album, The High Road, really displayed this unique sound she possessed. The leading single, “Too Little, Too Late,” her most successful single to date, was very reminiscent of “Leave (Get Out).” It was a powerful “I’m moving on from you” song.
“So let me on down yes, time has made me strong/ I’m starting to move on, I’m going to say this now/ Your chance has come and gone, didn’t you know? It’s just a little too late, a little too long, and I can’t wait,” she sang. With this album you could see the evolution, not only of her vocals, but also of her songwriting. I thought she was brown sugar with her first album’s ballads, but she had really achieved elite status with her second single, “How To Touch a Girl” from The High Road. It was my favorite song by her, period.
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