''Heaux Tales'' is the debut

extended play An extended play record, usually referred to as an EP, is a musical recording that contains more tracks than a single but fewer than an album or LP record.

(EP) by American R&B singer

Jazmine Sullivan Jazmine Marie Sullivan (born April 9, 1987) is an American R&B and soul singer. Born and raised in Philadelphia, her debut album, ''Fearless'' was released in 2008. The record topped ''Billboards Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart and was certifie ...

. It was released by

RCA Records RCA Records is an American record label currently owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America. It is one of Sony Music's four flagship labels, alongside RCA's former long-time rival Columbia Records; also A ...

on January 8, 2021. Its release date was confirmed on December 2, 2020. It is her first release since 2015's critically-acclaimed ''

Reality Show Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring unfamiliar people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 19 ...

''. It includes features from

Ari Lennox Courtney Shanade Salter (born March 26, 1991), known professionally as Ari Lennox, is an American Contemporary R&B, R&B singer from Washington, D.C. She is the first female artist to be signed to J. Cole's record label, Dreamville Records. She b ...

, Anderson .Paak, and

H.E.R. Gabriella Sarmiento Wilson (born June 27, 1997), known professionally as H.E.R. (pronounced "her", an acronym for "Having Everything Revealed"), is an American singer, songwriter, musician and actress. She has received several awards includin ...

The EP was primarily recorded in Sullivan's

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

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 emphasizes instructional and informative qualities in literature, art, and design. In art, design, architecture, and landscape, didacticism is an emerging conceptual approach that is driven by the urgent need to ...

concept albums like ''

The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill ''The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill'' is the debut solo album by American singer and rapper Lauryn Hill. It was released on August 25, 1998, by Ruffhouse Records and Columbia Records. ''The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill'' is a neo soul and R&B alb ...

''". Structurally, six "

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

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 ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...

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 the Album of the Year award at the 2021 BET Awards and the 2021 Soul Train Music Awards; it was named Album of the Year by ''

NPR National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...

'', ''

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

LA Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

'' and ''

Pitchfork A pitchfork (also a hay fork) is an agricultural tool with a long handle and two to five tines used to lift and pitch or throw loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves. The term is also applied colloquially, but inaccurately, to th ...

''. The EP 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 R&B music genre. Honors ...

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 debut extended play (EP), '' Heaux Tales'' (2021). The song was written by Sullivan, Audra Mae, Kyle Coleman, Micha ...

" was nominated for both

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 four times, while Bab ...

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 will be 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. According to '' Revolt'', Sullivan explained the inspiration behind the project in a video: ''

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 and director based in New York City. From 2004 to 2006, Hynes was ...

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 ''All Songs Considered'' host Bob Boilen in Washington, D.C. The first Tiny Desk Concert came about in 2008 after Boilen and NPR Music editor Stephen Thom ...

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 Almánzar Cephus (, ; born October 11, 1992), known professionally as Cardi B, is an American rapper and songwriter. She first gained popularity as an influencer on Vine and Instagram. From 2015 to early 2017, she appeared as ...

and

Lizzo Melissa Viviane Jefferson (born April 27, 1988), known professionally as Lizzo, is an American singer, rapper, and flutist. Born in Detroit, Michigan, she moved to Houston, Houston, Texas with her family when she was 10 years old. After col ...

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 f ...

", 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 (acronym BET) is an American basic cable channel targeting African-American audiences. It is owned by the CBS Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Global via BET Networks and has offices in New York City, Los A ...

during the

Soul Train Music Awards The Soul Train Music Awards is an annual music awards show which previously aired in national broadcast syndication, and honors the best in African-American culture, music and entertainment. It is produced by the makers of ''Soul Train'', the pro ...

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 a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

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 North and ...

'' 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 kilometres, is the longest line of crags in North Germany. Geography Location The Ith is immediatel ...

women like fellow singer Ari Lennox talking about

femininity Femininity (also called womanliness) is a set of attributes, behaviors, and roles generally associated with women and girls. Femininity can be understood as socially constructed, and there is also some evidence that some behaviors considered fe ...

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'' (stylized in all caps) is an entertainment and popular culture news website. It was founded in 2008 by Jarret Myer and Brian Brater, and acquired by Woven Digital (later renamed Uproxx Media Group) in 2014. The site's target audience ...

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

patriarchal society Patriarchy is a social system in which positions of dominance and privilege are primarily held by men. It is used, both as a technical anthropological term for families or clans controlled by the father or eldest male or group of males ...

" 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, is a measurement unit in music industry to define the consumption of music that equals the purchase of one album copy. This consumption includes streaming and song downloads in addition to traditi ...

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

MRC Data Luminate (formerly Nielsen SoundScan, Nielsen Music Products, and MRC Data) is a provider of music sales data. Established by Mike Fine and Mike Shalett in 1991, data is collected weekly and made available every Sunday (for albums sales) and eve ...

. This became Sullivan's second US top-ten album 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 Nielsen SoundScan. The chart debuted as Hot R&B LPs in the issue dated J ...

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 Nielsen SoundScan. The chart debuted as Hot R&B LPs in the issue dated J ...

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.

Track listing

Personnel

Credits adapted from

Tidal Tidal is the adjectival form of tide. Tidal may also refer to: * ''Tidal'' (album), a 1996 album by Fiona Apple * Tidal (king), a king involved in the Battle of the Vale of Siddim * TidalCycles, a live coding environment for music * Tidal (servic ...

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

–

executive producer Executive producer (EP) is one of the top positions in the making of a commercial entertainment product. Depending on the medium, the executive producer may be concerned with management accounting or associated with legal issues (like copyrights o ...

* Dave Kutch –

mastering engineer A mastering engineer is a person skilled in the practice of taking audio (typically musical content) that has been previously mixed in either the analog or digital domain as mono, stereo, or multichannel formats and preparing it for use in distr ...

* 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 an American mixing engineer.Daley, Dan (May 2005).Manny Marroquin. ''Sound on Sound''. Retrieved February 10, 2007 He has received ten Grammy awards for his professional audio work. Life and career M ...

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

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the l ...

* 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, reproduction, ...

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

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

References

{{BET Award for Album of the Year 2021 EPs Jazmine Sullivan albums RCA Records albums Albums produced by Cardiak Albums produced by Dev Hynes Albums produced by Key Wane Concept albums Contemporary R&B albums Grammy Award for Best R&B Album