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'''s Sal Cinquemani wrote, "Hill's guitarwork is multi-textured and fine-tuned but her vocals lack confidence and seem to toe the edge of her range throughout the album. And though the stripped-down nature of the show is fitting, many of the songs sound as if they are still in their infancy." Despite the mixed reviews, ''2.0'' debuted at #3 on the Billboard 200 and went platinum four weeks after its release.
Despite Hill's departure from the media and celebrity, she continued to have some success in the music world. Her song "Mystery of Iniquity" was nominated for a Grammy without promotion or radio airplay and used as an interpolation by hip-hop mega-producer Kanye West for his single "All Falls Down" (eventually recorded by Syleena Johnson).
Vatican controversyOn December 13, 2003, Hill made headlines by denouncing "corruption, exploitation, and abuses" in reference to the molestation of boys by Catholic priests in the United States and the cover-up of offenses by Catholic Church officials.[MTV News article: "Lauryn Hill Attacks Catholic Church At Vatican Concert"] The statements were made during a performance at a Christmas benefit concert at the Vatican. Reading from a prepared statement,
cquote I am sorry if I am about to offend some of you. I did not accept my invitation to celebrate with you the birth of Christ. Instead I ask you why you are not in mourning for him in this place? I want to ask you, what have you got to say about the lives you have broken? What about the families who were expecting God and instead were cheated by the Devil? Who feels sorry for them, the men, women and children damaged psychologically, emotionally and mentally by the sexual perversions and abuse carried out by the people they believed in? Holy God is a witness to the corruption of your leadership, of the exploitation and abuses which are the minimum that can be said for the clergy
. There is no acceptable excuse to defend the church."[What Lauryn Hill told the Vatican]
Hill called on the church leaders to "repent" and encouraged the crowd to "not seek blessings from man but from God."[Entertainment Weekly article: "Forgive Them Father"] She then performed the songs "Damnable Heresies" and "Social Drugs".
High-ranking church officials in attendance included Cardinal Camillo Ruini, Monsignor Rino Fisichella and Edmund Cardinal Szoka.[CTV News article: "Lauryn Hill speaks out against abuse at Vatican."] Pope John Paul II was not present.[New York Times article: "ARTS BRIEFING 12/16/2003".][Rolling Stone article: "Hill Blasts Catholic Church".] Monsignor Fisichella told reporters that Hill had acted "in poor taste and very bad mannered. It showed a complete lack of respect for her invitation and for the place where she had been invited to perform".[The Age article: "Catholic leaders get an angry sermon".] The Catholic League called Hill "pathologically miserable" and claimed her career is "in decline".
Hill responded to the controversy on December 16: "What I said was the truth. Is telling the truth bad manners? What I asked was the church to repent for what has happened."[IMDB news article: "Movie/TV News WENN 16 Dec 2003".] The following day, several reporters suggested that Hill's comments at the Vatican may have been influenced by her "advisor" Brother Anthony.[MSNBC article: Was Hill influenced to attack Catholic Church?".]
Short-lived return of the Fugees (2004–2006)The Fugees performed on September 18, 2004 at ''Dave Chappelle's Block Party'' in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn. They headlined a bill that included a star-studded cast of hip-hop celebrities. The concert featured Hill's nearly a cappella rendition of "Killing Me Softly". The event was recorded by director Michel Gondry and was released on March 3, 2006 to mostly positive reviews.
In 2005, she told an interviewer that "The Fugees was a conspiracy to control, to manipulate and to encourage dependence. I took a lot of abuse that many people would not have taken in these circumstances."
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."
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".
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."[AllHipHop.com Daily News - : Pras: "It Will Take An Act of God To Change Lauryn."]
2004–presentHill has been slowly working on a new album
In 2004, Hill began selling a pay-per-view music video of the song "Social Drugs" through her website.[www.mtv.com/news/articles/1484249/20040109/hill_lauryn.jhtml?headlines=true] Those who purchase the $15 video would only be able to view it three times before it expired. In addition to the video, Hill began selling autographed posters and Polaroids through her website, with some items listed at upwards of $500.
Performing in New York's Central Park in 2005In 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."[USA Today article: "Lauryn Hill returns to the limelight."] When asked how she now felt about the songs on 2.0, she stated "a lot of the songs were transitional. The music was about how I was feeling at the time, even though I was documenting my distress as well as my bursts of joy."
She has toured several times in recent years, though most of her concerts have received mixed reviews. Hill is often late to concerts (sometimes by over two hours) and reconfigures her well-known hits in to "unrecognizable scat chants" while "sporting frizzy orange hair and exaggerated makeup".
On October 6, 2005, Lauryn Hill emceed and performed two songs at the Take Back TV concert launching Al Gore's CurrentTV.
In June 2007, Sony records said though Hill has "consistently recorded over the past decade" and has what amounts to "a library of unreleased material in the vault", she had recently re-entered the studio "with the goal of making a new LP." Later that same year, Think Differently music quietly released a 22 track compilation titled Ms. Hill which featured cuts from The Miseducation, various soundtracks contributions and other "unreleased" songs. It features guest appearances from D'Angelo, Rah Digga and John Forté. It is unclear if the album is sanctioned by the artist — many of the songs are obviously in unfinished format and clock in at under one minute — but it is currently listed on AllMusic and Amazon.
Reports in mid-2008 claimed that Columbia Records currently believe Lauryn Hill to be "on hiatus."
On November 4, 2008, Hill was scheduled to perform at the Avo Session Basel music festival in Basel, Switzerland. Her concert was cancelled "for personal reasons" .
In April 2009, it was reported that Hill would engage in a 10 day tour of European summer festivals during mid-July of that year. On June 10, Hill's management informed the promoters of the Stockholm Jazz Festival, which she was scheduled to headline, that she would not be performing due to unspecified "health reasons."[www.rollingstone.com/rockdaily/index.php/2009/06/10/lauryn-hill-cancels-european-tour-cites-health-reasons/] Shortly afterwards, the rest of the tour was cancelled as well.
Alleged racist statementsAn unsubstantiated rumor circulated that Hill made the following statement: "I would rather have my children starve than have white people buy my albums". MTV publicly disclaimed the quotation, and after a discussion on The Howard Stern Show, Hill herself called in to the show from Norway to refute it. Hill has repeatedly asserted in interviews that the rumor is false, that she never made such statements, would never make such statements, and that she is in no way racist.
Legacy and influencesLauryn Hill has been cited as an influence by many, especially those in the neo-soul movement of the 2000s. Musicians who have acknowledged Hill's importance include Prince,
Michelle Obama, wife of U.S. President Barack Obama, told the BBC that she frequently listens to Hill's music on her iPod, while 2008 Republican presidential candidate Senator John McCain's daughter Meghan has claimed that her father listens to Hill: "I borrowed his car once in D.C., and I was like, looking through [1] CDs, and I was like, 'Oh, Lauryn Hill.'" Actors Russell Crowe and Denzel Washington are also reportedly fans of the singer.
Discography- The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill (1998)
- MTV Unplugged No. 2.0 (2002)
Copyright Citations
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