It doesn't take a genius to understand that Jazmine Sullivan doesn't suffer fools gladly. Her warm, confident songwriting is colored by an encyclopedic knowledge of her R&B and soul predecessors—from Stevie Wonder's fecund '70s funk to the lustrous melodies of '90s hits—and an ability to pick apart tropes like a scientist manipulating microbes on a slide. And then there's her voice, which conveys a wisdom that's hard-earned rather than academic: raspy, slow to trust, bruised by smoke.-=-=-=-

"Dumb" is a single from her new full-length, Reality Show, and it encapsulates many of the little things she does so well: a haunted stomp that's left-of-center but not impenetrable, a lead vocal texture mixing velvet and sandpaper, a tasteful incorporation of human fireball Meek Mill for a neat counterpoint of a guest verse. But the moment that sticks out for me is a single line in the bridge: "So now what I hate the most/ Is you think you're so smart/ You think you're foolin' me." That’s Sullivan in a nutshell: the offense pales in comparison to the audacity it takes to think you could outwit her.