Lauryn Hill has always been a favourite with the masses. Throughout her two album career with one of the biggest selling rap groups of all time, The Fugees, it was always the young New York born rapper, singer and actress which gained the most attention from the cameras. Now, some eight years after her group released the classic album ‘The Score’ which showcased her immense talent for rapping on songs like ‘Manifest Outro’ and her unique and soulful singing ability on ‘Killing Me Softly’, the television screens, magazine covers and radio stations which she seemed to dominate in the same way that the likes of Beyonce and Alicia Keys do today, show no signs of the five times Grammy award winner.<\/p>\n\n\t
It was in 1998 that Ms. Hill was at the height of her success. She had just released ‘The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill’. Every radio station and music television station in the United States showed it great support. It reached sales of millions, gained the top awards at all of the highly regarded ceremonies and took to the road on a world tour, spanning over twenty nations. It combined influences from the artists appreciation of gospel and soul music, featured the likes of guitar legend Carlos Santana and constructed a platform for many a story on love, life, religion, politics and fame to be told on, through a mixture of the most prominent RnB music of its time and the most captivating rapping skills to be found in a music industry landscape which was dominated by ego maniacs such as Puff Daddy.<\/p>\n\n\t
Her spotlight stealing role in the Whoopy Goldberg headed film ‘Sister Act II’, her mesmerising chorus to one of the nineties most important rap singles ‘Ready Or Not’, her individualism and self contained nature in her solo debut ‘Doo Wop (That Thing)’ and recollections of her stunning appearance of beautiful dreadlocks and self tailored dress is enough to have even the most distanced of music fans asking the question, ‘Where is she now?’.<\/p>\n\n\t
After a blitzed diary of international tours and promotional appearances and just one new song after her debut album, a collaboration between the late Bob Marley and herself on the song ‘Turn Your Lights Down Low’ things got very quiet. The lack of appearances and material in the public limelight was a stark contrast to the previously intense presence the industry favourite had held. Finally in 2002, MTV<\/span>’s ‘Unplugged’ series released ‘Lauryn Hill Unplugged’, a two disc package of acoustic tracks featuring little rapping, scattered amongst long and tiring spoken interludes by the artist of her reflections on the price she felt she paid for becoming famous to the extent she had done a few years earlier. The album presented an artist perhaps confused, and certainly in the middle of a transition from one mind set to another. Much of the new material voiced her concerns of society, politics and religion whilst at the same time, disowned her previous public profile as being a presentable, perfected singer.<\/p>\n\n\t Although selling to platinum status, the album was considered poor by most. Many reviews and fan discussions focused on the apparent lack of rehearsal on the CD, the poor guitar skills and the complexity of the subject matter. It was felt that the artist was troubled, and didn’t know what she was trying to articulate with her music, resulting in a complicated, far from concise and sometimes confusing personal diary entry. ‘I had to reintroduce myself to my parents’ said the star in one tedious interlude, a clear indication that it wasn’t the time or place for the once composed and head strong artist to be speaking to her public.<\/p>\n\n\t Media reports soon began to surface, suggesting that the artist was amongst other things, going through a mental breakdown and had joined a cult led by a mysterious preacher named Brother Anthony. Speculation took over, with some of the music industries leading magazines publishing articles and interviews, about and with un-named ‘sources’ and ‘industry insiders’. To many, the name Lauryn Hill became nothing more than the title of a deranged lunatic, who had shaved her head bald, put on considerable weight and read the Bible one too many times. An artist far too obsessed with making babies, having supposedly just given birth to her fifth, and becoming the next Marley.<\/p>\n\n\t