Jamila Woods is just a few days away from releasing her anticipated new album Water Made Us (due 10/13 via Jagjaguwar), and she’s just shared one more pre-release single and announced a 2024 tour. The song, “Practice,” is a funk-infused R&B jam that features a rapped verse from fellow Chicago artist “Saba” and a chorus that presumably riffs on the legendary Allen Iverson rant about practice. Jamila says:

“Practice” is a song I made with [producer] McClenney about releasing the pressure we put on ourselves in relationships. I was trying to shift how I often evaluate relationships based on their potential for longevity rather than on how I feel in the moment. The song is about how we can learn to just enjoy ourselves and be present with someone without needing to ‘get everything right’ or ‘have everything together.’ My friend Carlos López Estrada came up with this concept of creating faces with bodies in a way that’s sensual and silly at the same time. The whole process was very playful and experimental, which suits the song perfectly.

McClenney adds:

“Practice” was such an important part of completing this album. We went through 2-3 different versions of the song to end up with the final you hear today. Where it sat in the sequence was important because it has a familiar rhythmic groove that celebrates the joy of exploring a new relationship while bookending the “honeymoon” phase of the album’s themes as the next few tracks move onto heavier & more vulnerable topics & tones. It was a puzzle piece Jamila and I spent so much time making sure we got right. Saba has been a consistent collaborator of hers and it felt like the perfect track to capture their synergistic creative energies with something both familiar and new; he killed it.

Listen to “Practice” and watch the video below.

Jamila’s newly-announced tour includes a US run in February with Kara Jackson, followed by a UK/Europe run in April. Tickets go on sale Friday (10/13) at 10 AM local time.

The US run hits NYC on February 18 at Webster Hall. All dates are listed below.

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Jamila Woods — 2024 Tour Dates
USA DATES WITH KARA JACKSON
2/1/2024 – Seattle, WA @ Neumos
2/2/2024 – Portland, OR @ Wonder Ballroom
2/4/2024 – San Francisco, CA @ August Hall
2/6/2024 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Fonda Theatre
2/7/2024 – Phoenix, AZ @ Crescent Ballroom
2/10/2024 – Austin, TX @ Emo’s
2/11/2024 – Dallas, TX @ The Studio at The Factory
2/13/2024 – Atlanta, GA @ Terminal West
2/16/2024 – Washington, DC @ Howard Theatre
2/17/2024 – Philadelphia, PA @ Theatre of Living Arts
2/18/2024 – New York, NY @ Webster Hall
2/20/2024 – Cambridge, MA @ The Sinclair
2/23/2024 – Chicago, IL @ The Vic Theatre

UK/EUROPE DATES
4/23/2024 – London, UK @ Islington Assembly Hall
4/25/2024 – Amsterdam, NL @ Melkweg OZ
4/26/2024 – Brussels, BE @ Nuits Botanique
4/27/2024 – Paris, FR @ La Bellevilloise
4/29/2024 – Berlin, DE @ Lido
4/30/2024 – Copenhagen, DK @ Lille Vega