:
For the model, see Lauren Michelle Hill.
| Name | Lauryn Hill |
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| Background | solo_singer |
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| Birth name | Lauryn Noelle Hill |
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| Alias | |
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| Born | May 25, 1975 |
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| Origin | South Orange, New Jersey, United States |
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| Instrument | Vocals, guitar, piano |
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| Genre | R&B;, hip-hop, soul, reggae |
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| Occupation | Singer, rapper, songwriter, record producer, actress |
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| Years active | 1991–present |
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| Label | Columbia, Ruffhouse |
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| Associated acts | The Fugees |
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| Url | www.lauryn-hill.com |
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Lauryn Noel Hill (born May 25, 1975)
Following the success of her debut album, Hill largely dropped out of public view, in part due to her displeasure with fame and the music industry. After a four-year hiatus, she released MTV Unplugged No. 2.0, a live recording of "deeply personal songs" performed mostly solo with an acoustic guitar. By 1994, Jean married his wife, Marie Claudinette and in the summer of 1996, Hill met Rohan Marley, a son of reggae legend Bob Marley, Hill soon became pregnant by Marley, who himself was already married. For a long time, she kept the identity of the baby's father a secret to almost everyone. Hill and Rohan have now five children together: Zion David-Nesta Marley (3 August 1997); Selah Marley (12 November 1998); Joshua Marley (January 2002); John Marley (summer 2003) and baby girl Sarah Marley, who was born in early 2008. Rohan Marley told People magazine in August 2008 that although the baby is 7 months old, she is still without a name. However, in August 2008, it was reported that Hill was living with her mother and children in her hometown of South Orange, New Jersey, She appeared on the soundtrack to Conspiracy Theory in 1996 with "Can't Take My Eyes Off You", and on Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood in 2002 with the track "Selah".
Musical career
The Fugees
The Refugee Camp ("
Fugees") formed after
Prakazrel "Pras" Michel approached Hill in high school about joining a music group he was creating. Soon after, she met Michel's cousin and fellow
Haïtian,
Wyclef Jean. At some point, Hill was nicknamed "L Boogie", as she began to convert her poetic writing into rap verses. Hill's singing gained worldwide acclaim with the Fugees' remake of "
Killing Me Softly with His Song", accompanied by a sample from
Rotary Connection's "Memory Band".
The Fugees' first album, Blunted on Reality, peaked at #49 on the U.S. Hot 100. The album sold over two million copies worldwide. Blunted on Reality was followed by The Score, a multi-platinum, Grammy-winning album that established two of the three Fugees as international rap stars. Singles from The Score include "Ready or Not", "Fu-Gee-La", "No Woman, No Cry" (made famous by Bob Marley), and "Killing Me Softly" (made famous by Roberta Flack).
The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill (1998)
In 1996, Hill began production on an album that would eventually become
The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill. The title was inspired by "
The Mis-Education of the Negro" book by
Carter G. Woodson and
The Education of Sonny Carson, a film and autobiographical novel. Hill was once an artist on
Ruffhouse Records. Several songs on the album concerned her frustrations with The Fugees; "To Zion" spoke about her decision to have her first baby, even though many at the time encouraged her to
abort the pregnancy so as to not interfere with her blossoming career. The singer requested that Baraka speak to the children about the concept of love, and he improvised the lecture. Though
The Miseducation was largely a collaborative work between Hill and a group of musicians known as New Ark (Vada Nobles, Rasheem Pugh, Tejumold and Johari Newton), there was "label pressure to do the
Prince thing," wherein all tracks would be credited as "written and produced by" the artist with little outside help. Hill, her management, and her record label were sued in 1998 by New Ark, claiming that they either co-wrote or co-produced 13 of 14 tracks on the album. The first single off the album was "Lost Ones" (US #27), released in Spring 1998. The second was "
Doo Wop (That Thing)", which reached #1 in the Billboard charts. Other singles released in support of the album were "Ex-Factor" (US #21), "Everything Is Everything" (US #35), and "To Zion". At the 1999
Grammy Awards, Hill was nominated 10 times, becoming the first woman ever to be nominated 10 times in one year: Hill won five Grammys including
Album of the Year (beating
Madonna's critically acclaimed
Ray of Light and
Shania Twain's bestselling
Come on Over),
Best R&B; Album,
Best R&B; Song,
Best Female R&B; Vocal Performance, and
Best New Artist. Hill set a new record in the industry, becoming the first woman to win five Grammys in one night. Between 1998 and 1999, Hill earned $25 million from record sales and touring.
Hill became a national media icon, as magazines ranging from Time to
Esquire to Teen People vied to put her on the cover. In the late 1990s, Hill was noted by some as a humanitarian. In 1996 she received an Essence Award for work which has included the 1996 founding of the Refugee Project, an outreach organization that supports a two-week overnight camp for at-risk youth, and for supporting well-building projects in Kenya and Uganda, as well as for staging a rap concert in Harlem to promote voter registration. In 1999 Hill received three awards at the 30th Annual NAACP Image Awards. In 1999 Ebony named her one of "100+ Most Influential Black Americans". She was named with Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr. and others among the "10 For Tomorrow," in the EBONY 2000: Special Millennium Issue.
Self-Imposed Exile and MTV Unplugged No. 2.0 (2000–2003)
After the release of her debut album, she explored other methods of expressing herself, including creating an extensive amount of music,
poetry, and clothing designs. She started writing a screenplay about the life of
Bob Marley, in which she planned to act as his wife
Rita. She also began producing a
romantic comedy about
soul food with a working title of
Sauce, and accepted a starring role in the
film adaptation of
Toni Morrison's novel
Beloved; she later dropped out of both projects due to pregnancy. Hill became dissatisfied with the music industry; she felt she was being unfairly controlled by her record label, and disliked being unable "to go to the grocery store without
makeup." She fired her management team and began attending
Bible study classes five days a week; she also stopped doing interviews, watching
television and listening to music. She started associating with a "spiritual adviser" named Brother Anthony. She also spoke about her emotional crisis, saying, "For two or three years I was away from all social interaction. It was a very introspective time because I had to confront my fears and master every
demonic thought about inferiority, about insecurity or the fear of being black, young and gifted in this
western culture." She went on to say that she had to fight to retain her
identity, and was forced "to deal with folks who weren't happy about that."
On July 21, 2001, Hill unveiled her new material to a small crowd, for a taping of an MTV Unplugged special. An album of the concert, titled MTV Unplugged No. 2.0, focused on the lyrics and the message rather than the musical arrangements. "Fantasy is what people want, but reality is what they need", she said during the concert. "I've just retired from the fantasy part." Most of the songs featured only an acoustic guitar and her voice, somewhat raspy from rehearsal on the day before the recording. Hill used the set as an opportunity to give information on why she had been absent from the public for a period of time and what she had found while away. Unlike the near-unanimous praise of The Miseducation, 2.0 sharply divided critics. AllMusic gave the album 4 out of 5 stars, saying that the recording "is the unfinished, unflinching presentation of ideas and of a person. It may not be a proper follow-up to her first album, but it is fascinating." Hill told the crowd of 7,500:
Hill called on the church leaders to "repent" and encouraged the crowd to "not seek blessings from man but from God." High-ranking church officials in attendance included Cardinal Camillo Ruini, Monsignor Rino Fisichella and Cardinal Edmund Szoka. The segment was cut from the television broadcast. Both the Vatican and Columbia Records refused to issue official statements regarding Hill's actions. The Fugees also appeared at BET's 2005 Music Awards on June 28, 2005, where they opened the show with a 12-minute set. One track, "Take It Easy", was leaked online and therefore was released as an internet single on September 27, 2005. It peaked at #40 on the Billboard R&B; Chart. The song was mostly panned by critics, as The Village Voice wrote, "Turns out that a Fugees reunion wasn't really what anyone was waiting for; we just wanted Lauryn to start rapping again."
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The Fugees embarked on a European tour from November 30, 2005 through December 20, 2005. The group played in Austria, Slovakia, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Germany, Belgium, Italy, France, England, Ireland and Switzerland. On February 6, 2006, the Fugees did a special "Reunion Concert" in Hollywood, that was offered as a live webcast on the Verizon Wireless website. The Fugees were featured in numerous Verizon Wireless VCast advertisements in magazines and on TV around that same time. A new song titled "Foxy" was made available on VCast and a third new song was leaked, unofficially titled "Wannabe", which uses the same hook as the Michael Jackson song "I Wanna Be Where You Are". Old tensions between Hill and the other members of the group soon resurfaced, and the reunion fizzled before an album could be recorded. Jean and Michel both blamed Hill for the split. Hill reportedly demanded to be addressed by everyone, including her bandmates, as "Ms. Hill"; she also considered changing her moniker to "Empress". Her chronic tardiness — sometimes stalling up to 45 minutes after the two had taken the stage to join them — has been cited as another contributing factor to the break up. Michel told the press in August 2007, "Before I work with Lauryn Hill again, you will have a better chance of seeing Osama Bin Laden and George W. Bush in Starbucks having a latte, discussing foreign policies… At this point I really think it will take an act of God to change her, because she is that far out there." and in November 2004 shot a music video. The album had a slated street date of November 2005, and neither it nor the music video have been released. In 2004, Hill contributed a new song, "The Passion", to . Around this time, Hill began selling a pay-per-view music video of the song "Social Drugs" through her website. In 2005, she told USA Today, "If I make music now, it will only be to provide information to my own children. If other people benefit from it, then so be it."
She has toured several times in recent years, though most of her concerts have received mixed reviews. Rohan Marley disputed these claims, telling an interviewer that Hill has enough material for several albums: "She writes music in the bathroom, on toilet paper, on the wall. She writes it in the mirror if the mirror smokes up. She writes constantly. This woman does not sleep". One of the few public appearances Hill made in 2008 was at a Martha Stewart book-signing in New Jersey, perplexing some in the press.
2010-Present
In January 2010, Hill returned to the live stage and performed in stops across New Zealand and Australia on the 'Raggamuffin Festival' - A music festival that celebrates reggae music. She performed songs from the Miseducation album and some Fugees hits. On April 19, Hill appeared at the Tanzania Education Trust Gala And Reception in New York City for a Charity Event. When making this public appearance, she was asked by paparazzi whether she is working on a new album, to which she replied "Yeah, possibly", suggesting that she may be working on new projects, and possibly a sophomore album. On August 28, Hill performed at Rock the Bells Hip Hop festival on Governor's Island in Brooklyn. Friends Mary J. Blige, Beyoncé, Alicia Keys, Swizz Beatz, Chris Rock, John Legend and Jay-Z also appeared on stage. Hill performed several songs from The Miseducation, including to Zion, during which she brought her five children on stage. On November 5, Hill headlined the University of Miami's annual Homecoming concert. Hill performed several songs in front of a very large and responsive crowd. Her hour long set included songs form the Miseducation album such as, Lost Ones, Ex-Factor, To Zion (during which she brought her son Joshua on stage an allowed him to sing into the microphone), a few Bob Marley songs, and several Fugees tracks. Hill was announced to headline the 6th Annual Jazz in the Gardens, in
Miami Gardens,
Florida in December 2010. She will be performing on the first day, of the 2-day concert, March 19, 2011, along with
Jazmine Sullivan,
Charlie Wilson,
Al Jarreau, and
Doug E. Fresh with
Slick Rick "The Ruler".
John Legend,
Mary J. Blige, and
Jazmine Sullivan. In
2005,
Talib Kweli released a song about the singer, titled "Ms. Hill", on
. D'Angelo, who appeared on "Nothing Even Matters," referred in an interview to at least one church reportedly having used the song in a service.
Discography
;Studio albums
1998: The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill
;Live albums
2002: MTV Unplugged No. 2.0
Filmography
1998 - Restaurant .... Leslie
1997 - Hav Plenty .... Debra
1996 - ABC Afterschool Specials .... Malika
1993 - .... Rita Louise Watson
1993 - King of the Hill .... Elevator Operator
1992 - Here and Now
1991 - As the World Turns .... Kira Johnson
See also
List of awards and nominations received by Lauryn Hill
References
External links
Official site
January 2006: Interview with Essence magazine 2005: They Call Me Ms. Hill
July 2005: Lauryn Hill interview with Trace magazine
June 2005: Lauryn Hill Def Poetry Jam Performance
October 30, 2003: Rolling Stone magazine, "The Mystery of Lauryn Hill: She made one of the greatest albums of the Nineties—then what happened?" by Touré
Category:Living people
Category:1975 births
Category:1990s singers
Category:2000s singers
Category:2010s singers
Category:African American rappers
Category:African American female singers
Category:African American singer-songwriters
Category:American female singers
Category:American female guitarists
Category:American humanitarians
Category:American rhythm and blues guitarists
Category:American rhythm and blues singers
Category:American soul singers
Category:English-language singers
Category:Female rappers
Category:Grammy Award winners
Category:Hip hop singers
Category:Musicians from New Jersey
Category:Neo soul singers
Category:People from Essex County, New Jersey
Category:People from South Orange, New Jersey
Category:Rappers from New Jersey
