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COVER stORy
 www.BREmagazine.com 2 0 0 8
By Ruth Adkins Robinson
Fabulous, Fated, Fearless
But in today’s digital technology, whena young performer seems newly vaultedinto the limelight, massive informationabout them is instantaneous, postedon the Internet, along with the datethe poster first became aware of theartist and whether some observers didknow ‘there was a star in there.’ Overthe last few years the Internet crowdshave thronged in support of one of thebrightest talents in the latest crop of stars--the tall, beautiful, golden-throatedRMG artist Jazmine Sullivan.Often those posting comments, videosand testimony seem prescient when itcomes to Sullivan’s fate. For instance,on October 20, 2007, Nunya posted:
“I’m really excited about her project! She’sbeen around for a while doing club shows;hopefully now she can get some more shine.” 
 The same week, Rae20072007 posted,
“Oh my goodness! I’ve been waiting for  ya’ll. Two years I’ve been listening to her,I’m glad somebody caught up!!” 
Back in the day,
 when a new star was born, therewere people dotted along the landscape who would say, ‘Oh, Ialways knew there was a star there’,” or ‘I’ve known about herforever.’ It was easy to say and difficult to prove, something akinto saying you were in the ballpark when Hank Aaron hit the fabledhomerun or ringside when Muhammad Ali beat everybody down.
 
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A whole lot of peoplehave caught up, Rae. Rightnow Jaz is being toastedlavishly as the ‘next bigthing.’ There are reasonsfor the champagne to bepop topping. Her debutsingle, “Need U Bad,” wasreally something different.Bouncing between reggae-tinged verses and a totalR&B hook, it capturedwild interest from heralready faithful. In June,Ally posted,
“Girl, me and my girlfriends love ur song.Your voice is amazing. Theybe bumpin’ you on v-103in GA. We love it at the end when it say ‘Me can’t eat, mecan’t sleep.’ Keep doing what  you do!” 
“Need U Bad” raced upthe Mainstream R&B/Hip-Hop, Hot R&B/Hip-HopSongs and Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay charts claimingthe number one spot witha speed that was so rare fora new artist that Jazmine isonly the eighth act in theentire decade to do so andthe first since Ciara did italmost four years ago.The video for the songis so hot it hit #1 onBET’s “106 & Park” videocountdown show for threenon-consecutive days afterher live performance onthe show in August. The Jonathan Mannion-directedvideo for “Need U Bad”is also the second highest-rated R&B video on AOL Music.There’s more thanstats in her story though.Listen to the people. OnAugust 2, 2008 at 8:57pm,schmekadlegr posted thiscomment about the video:
“I think the song is great and the down home feel of the video makes her look real sophisticated. It has a nicemeaning to it.” 
Naturally, MTV and VH1are all over her. She nabbedthe new artist spotlight onVH1 Soul’s “You OughtaKnow” and MTV’s“Discover and Download.”On September 24, BETairs “Jazmine Sullivan =Fearless,” a 30-minutespecial featuring thetalented singer performingtracks from her debutdisc. The debut song is
 Jazminestands out from all theother artistsbecause she sings with so much conviction!But not only is she agreat singer, she’s a great  writer. She’s not just anartist, she’s a performer!She’s just as great live asshe is on records. And you don’t get that from alot of artists today.
—Missy Elliott 
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