Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Lauryn Hill Explains Her Long Absence From Music Scene And Speaks On Return (news)



(CBS) After eight years of musical obscurity, rapper and singer Lauryn Hill says she's now ready to record again.
"I think it's just time," Hill tells National Public Radio's Zoe Chace after her recent performance at the Harmony Festival in Santa Rosa, Calif.


Hill, who is now 35, earned herself an everlasting spot in the music landscape, thanks to her multi-platinum selling album "The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill" and her work with the Fugees.


Soon after taking home five trophy's at the 1999 Grammy awards, Hill left the music scene and kept under the radar, living a low-key life with her partner Rohan Marley (son of the late reggae singer Bob Marley) and their five children. In 2002, she briefly emerged from her self-imposed exile to help unveil her new material in 'MTV Unplugged"


For the past decade, the "Everything is Everything" singer rarely performed or granted interviews with the press, which helped stir rumors that suggested she had suffered an emotional breakdown.


Hill explains her absence to NPR saying "the support system that I needed was not necessarily in place. There were things about myself, personal-growth things, that I had to go through in order to feel like it was worth it."
She continues to say that the demand of the music industry took a toll on her. "Oftentimes," Hill says, "the machine can overlook the need to take care of the people who produce the sounds that have a lot to do with the health and well-being of society...And it's important that people be given the time that they need to go through, to grow, so that the consciousness level of the general public is properly affected."

But now that Hill's youngest child is 2 and "old enough" for her to be away from her family for a period of time, Hill is ready to start recording.

"I'm starting to get excited again. Believe it or not, I think what people are attracted to about me, if anything, is my passion. People got exposed to my passion through music and song first...And I think that can be infectious." 
Full Story: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128149135

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