Lauryn Hill

I need more practice...

Mixtape master J. Period has teamed up with Hip-Hop diva Lauryn Hill to
present "The Best of Lauryn Hill" (hosted by Lauryn Hill). The mixtape, a
double CD collection, features over 80 tracks of remixes, concert
performances, personal commentary & interviews from Lauryn herself. For
more visit: http://www.jperiod.com.

And what category of crazy are we putting her? Whitney? Brian Wilson? Syd Barrett? All of these could be properly called bat-shit crazy.

but did she throw her hands in the air?

Over the past few years, it has been speculated that Hill has grown mentally unstable and is being influenced by a less than ethical "spiritual leader" who allegedly has taken great sums of money for his leadership. It is also reported that Hill referred this spiritual leader to the currently embattled comedian Dave Chapelle.

Looks like Pappawheelie was OTM...

yep, still crazy

The sad thing is it really shouldn't be crazy for her to work her way into something new, or even to be a little demanding or ramshackle about the process -- there just seems to be some intense crazy involved in her sitting around for years doing it and shooting off in a million directions and getting worse and worse at what she could do before and just not getting anything worthwhile done. I mean, geez, she could be the biggest musical genius in the world -- it makes no difference if she can't get it together to finish anything.

Her new song "Lose Myself" is wonderful.

Indeed.

Lauryn Hill doing afro-pop/reggae-infused soul sounds like it should be really good.

huh that lose myself song is cool...different.

So...Ms. Lauryn Hill (billed as such) is playing at this hippie festival in Sonoma County. Coheadliners: Slightly Stoopid. 1-day pass: $35. Do I buy tickets? Could be an interesting meltdown or ACTUALLY AWESOME.

She played here (as Sly & Robbie's singer!) a few months ago, and there didn't seem to be any outbreaks of lunacy reported.

was she where bizarre clown makeup?

where = wearing

Jeeeeeeesus that line-up. Surprised these guys aren't playing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQe4XVrJFGQ

What a pretentious jerk is Ms. Hill.

http://nyti.ms/ezt1T6

It's astonishing, her self-righteousness. She was three hours late.

Going to see Lauryn Hill in 2010 is pretty much asking for it.

nothing about that story surprises me at all

To the crowd she was both thankful and indignantly apologetic. “I spent my entire 20s sacrificing my life to give you love. So when I hear people complain, I don’t know what to tell you,” she said. “I personally know I’m worth the wait.”

fuck OFF.

Any ILXORs there?

hmm she apparently has a show booked in mpls and i was thinking of going

Don't do it

the article makes her seem sad and lost (tho she also seems reprehensible).

saw her at rock the bells and it was pretty sad

Wonder if the keyboard player's still in the band.

Um. See? Here's the thing. Having read all of those articles and live reviews, a bunch of my friends and I bought tickets to see her tonight in Montreal anyway. And I don't know what was different about today but it was astounding?

Doors at 9:30, DJ at 11, Lauryn took the stage just after midnight. The first couple songs were the refixes of older stuff - a metalled up version of Ex Factor, and then a smooth post-rock sort of take on it, an extended gospel-y When It Hurts So Bad, rawk take on Lost Ones, reggae version of Final Hour. The vocals were occasionally scratchy but mostly impeccable. To Zion, and then a big note-perfect Fugees flashback, which included a jammy How Many Mics?, Flamingos' "I Only Have Eyes For You" into Zealots, the O.G. Ready or Not and a reggae Fu-Gee-La and Killing Me Softly, and Turn Your Lights Down Low and Doo Wop to close.

She was in a pretty great mood the entire 2 hour set. Lots of crowd banter, lots of jokes with her band and with us. Seemed very thankful that we were there. Appreciative, even? Dancing and grooving and promised to come back soon.

So...maybe this was an anomaly, but if she can be like this more often, basically, Lauryn Hill is BACK so far as I'm concerned.

i think the ny times review was real positive, despite her being so late

By all accounts her First Avenue show was fantastic--wish I'd been able to go. She hung out with fans and posed for photos afterward.

I think a lot of the complaints have to do with people like her drastically changed/funk-metal versions of her old shit or not. I went to Rock The Bells and was totally :D and everyone around me was o_O

i know someone - an old-skool r&b fan unlikely to be into anything like "funk-metal" - who went to her atl show and adored it.

gonna write a Twilight Zone spec script in which one day all music suddenly sounds like Infectious Grooves, and Whiney, the only happy man left on earth, has a bad ear infection and loses his hearing

~makes u think~

lol not a rapper being late to go on stage. i am outraged and will write an article about it! never in my life have i seen such disrespect!

fuck that tho

at least be ballpark

so sick of shitty rap shows, could not take funk-metal versions of songs i knew otherwise

i still kind of want to present erykah badu with a bill for the cumulative hours she's kept me waiting for sundry shows and interviews - definitely comes to over a working day's worth by now

next time you see her lex, ask her what 333 means plz...

333?

sorry, seemed when Badu was doing a lot of her NuAmerykah (1 or 2?) promotional stuff, the numbers '33' & '333' came up a lot...seemed kind of intentional at the time..?

sorry bout that--thx anywayz <333

oh yeah i remember now, she kept tweeting about 3.33am or something. ok it's not like i see her regularly but if i ever get to speak to her again i'll ask!

right on =)

"No musical artist has ever shown as much contempt for their audience as Lauryn Hill."

http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/scold-yeller/Content?oid=8194382

wait waht?

public fugees ltd

that article OTM

tbh I really think the great show/terrible show has absolutely nothing to do with the music Lauryn decides to play and everything to do with whether or not she is on her meds

fair nuff

dan otm

that article OTM

it's really difficult for me to have any hard feelings against her because i listened to "ms hill" by talib so many times before i heard anything negative and i'd rather believe his take

tho watching her on fallon right now and, having no other performances to compare her too, she pretty out of it and spastic

*she seems

What an entitled jerk she is:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/08/lauryn-hill-responds-nj-tax-evasion-charges_n_1582464.html

Lauryn Hill Responds To Tax Evasion Charges

06/08/12 08:05 PM ET AP

NEWARK, N.J. — Reclusive singer Lauryn Hill said in an Internet posting Friday that she hasn't paid taxes since she withdrew from society to guarantee the safety and well-being of herself and her family.

The eight-time Grammy Award winner and South Orange, N.J., resident was charged this week with willfully failing to file income tax returns with the Internal Revenue Service. Federal prosecutors said she didn't pay taxes on more than $1.5 million earned in 2005, 2006 and 2007 from recording and film royalties.

Hill responded to the federal charges in a lengthy post on her Tumblr page Friday. She described how she has rejected pop culture's "climate of hostility, false entitlement, manipulation, racial prejudice, sexism and ageism."

"Over-commercialization and its resulting restrictions and limitations can be very damaging and distorting to the inherent nature of the individual," Hill wrote. "I did not deliberately abandon my fans, nor did I deliberately abandon any responsibilities, but I did however put my safety, health and freedom and the freedom, safety and health of my family first over all other material concerns! I also embraced my right to resist a system intentionally opposing my right to whole and integral survival."

She said in her online post that she explained herself to authorities when she was questioned by authorities about her failure to pay taxes.

"My intention has always been to get this situation rectified. When I was working consistently without being affected by the interferences mentioned above, I filed and paid my taxes," she wrote. "This only stopped when it was necessary to withdraw from society, in order to guarantee the safety and well-being of myself and my family."

A spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office for New Jersey, which filed the tax charges, said in response to Hill's posting Friday that they could not speak to the specifics of the investigation.

The 37-year-old Hill got her start with the Haitian-American hip-hop band the Fugees. She began her solo career in 1998 with the critically acclaimed album "The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill."

Ugh.

― Josh in Chicago (Josh in Chicago), Wednesday, June 15, 2005 10:22 AM (6 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

here's to another seven years of calling black women crazy!

Wonder if she's a Rangers fan

here's to another seven years of calling black women crazy!

compare & contrast the erykah badu thread

well, no contrasting necessary i guess

azealia banks gonna be a crrrazy bitch in 2019

Matt P described how he has rejected ILM's "climate of hostility, false entitlement, manipulation, racial prejudice, sexism and ageism."

this is a stupid thing to fuck around with. would be sad if she ends up in jail.

she'll be straight, the IRS is usually pretty understanding if you say "I had my reasons"

Hill responded to the federal charges in a lengthy post on her Tumblr page

I understand the desire to object to the existence of this thread but Lauryn Hill is actually crazy.

saddest/truest line comes from that NYT article upthread:

"a performer who, for more than a decade, has been chasing a muse that has led her in almost every direction but forward"

nypost commenters are strangely unforgiving of a black woman going galt

equal opportunity galtism ftw

A spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office for New Jersey, which filed the tax charges, said in response to Hill's posting Friday that they could not speak to the specifics of the investigation "that's all well and good, but girlfriend still needs to pay her taxes."

she is obviously crazy but it's hard to generate much sympathy for her since the particular form in which that craziness expresses itself is megalomania.

Wonder if she's a Rangers fan

― it looks like something rupert the bear would wear (Algerian Goalkeeper), Monday, 11 June 2012 17:20 (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lol

Looks like she's facing jail.

Career jail.

I should distinguish, Badu is "crazy," but not crazy. She's eccentric, erratic, quirky, unpredictable, and a little conspiracy prone, but not crazy. Lauryn Hill, on the other hand, by all indications there could be something really wrong with her.

Also

here's to another seven years of calling black women crazy!

LOL. yeah, Badu and Hill ... that pretty much covers it! Let me know when you find another one.

no uh... actual jail

she'll be straight, the IRS is usually pretty understanding if you say "I had my reasons"
― shipl.de.al (some dude), Monday, June 11, 2012 5:39 PM (2 weeks ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Tell that to Wesley Snipes!

Quite a mugshot.

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/buster/lauryn-hill-mug-shot-563419

good look!

wow so "crazy"

she looks like a mean school guidance counselor who would criticize me for having bad handwriting

Yeah, I feel very judged by her.

and here i was, hoping i could judge her!

capn save-a-hill

I MEAAAAN SHE LOOKS LIKE A CRAZY MEAN BITCH

partly cloudy, 30% chance of clusterfuck

T/S: making fun of celebrities vs. feeling protective of celebrities

vs. saying a well-dressed woman in her mugshot is a superego extension of your prep school experience

isn't everything?

no

note to borads:

your posts are incoherent no matter the length.

fuck off, matt. there's no need for this kind of garbage.

goddam asswart of a human being

Weird how her mugshot is the most "together" she's looked in years.

lol "prep school" -- you're way off the mark pal but OOH BURN

what is a "prep school" anyway? just a private school? or do you have to live there for it to be a prep school? like brenden frasier in school ties?

you meant "perp school," which trains you to be a felon like Ms. Hill.

you are about to witness the strength of street knowledge

brb

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBBxFKCAaCo

Production is a nightmare, was feeling the rhymes even if they're hella paranoid

something tells me hip-hop is about to get its chinese democracy

Sounds like it should be on the new Killah Priest album.

The "I'm not crazy, society is crazy" hermitude posture is compelling, although in her case it's probably a little of both.

The "I'm not crazy, society is crazy" hermitude posture is compelling, although in her case it's probably a little of both.

^^^ truth.

This song was awesome: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhega1bctNk

on the evidence of these lyrics i don't think lauryn is crazy, i think she's quite sharp, but either she's lost interest in or has just lost the art of presentation

Sounds like it should be on the new Killah Priest album.

― deeznuggz (Spottie_Ottie_Dope), Monday, 6 May 2013 15:22 (4 hours ago) Permalink

lol

I think the new song is legitimately exciting and badass. Glad it's not just a Miseducation re-hash. Makes me actually anticipate future work from her.

goin to jail

never a fan of the Fugees and only marginally interested in her and yes I know she's said a lot of weird shit in public but any time people complain about her being lazy or undisciplined or whatever I just think that I don't know ANY women from my generation raising 5 children, that shit is no joke.

otm

the second part

for real. One is hard as fuck, and my friends are always like "ONE?! Holy shit you should try TWO!!!"

most female celebrities of her stature have one or two (and then hire a staff to raise them) - giving her the benefit of the doubt that she's tried to be more hands-on and putting their needs first like she says, five is a huuuuge amount of work and putting that on top of all her other baggage (being an aging black woman with a huge rep to live up to etc) its no wonder she might come off a bit unhinged

altho tbf when it comes to the taxes thing, eh I got nothing. hire an accountant already.

During a forceful statement to the judge, Hill explained she had always meant to eventually pay the taxes but was unable to during a period of time when she dropped out of the music business.

oh for fuck's sake

The thing about this that is super stupid is that if you contact the IRS and ask for help in figuring out how to pay a tax bill, they will totally work with you to figure out some payment schedule that is reasonable. Her bill was pretty fucking huge but that's money that the IRS wants and they will figure out how to work with you to get it.

I mean, pro-tip #1 for cheap Ivy ppl is "don't treat your taxes like your student loans; that shit won't get swept under the rug after 7 years" (hell at this point I don't even know if ppl are still doing that with student loans)

you don't get returns if you don't file taxes one calendar year, right?

I don't see how you could, it's not like they are magic

in the early 2000's I owed money cuz I didn't file the right form to take care of my freelance dough, and, yes, the IRS were quite friendly and helped set up a reasonable monthly payment plan.

It just cracks me up because I had been hearing all of this "THE IRS IS EVIL" rhetoric for years and years and years and then after a big jump in income I had a tax bill that I couldn't just write a check for at the time of filing, but I knew I'd be able to pay within the next 3 months, so I called their hotline and they were like "oh hey no biggie, here let us help you" and I sat there thinking to myself "have any of these IRS haters ever actually bothered to talk to them, or did they just try to duck out on their taxes due to Principles and then decided to get huffy when the government reminded them of one of the costs of citizenship"

the stupidity starts with lauryn hill not having an accountant. working models with a part-time table waiting job often need an accountant.

i mean 5 kids and royalty statements from platinum albums? anyone trying to apply their turbotax experience with that shouldn't be

if there's anything everyone should take away from this - it's a) always file, always report income. not reporting income is a felony. and b) if you aren't sure you're reporting income, hire an accountant.

i worked for a tax preparer this year and there who claimed insane expenses on his 2004-2006 taxes, got audited, ignored the audit for FIVE YEARS and then decided to finally get around to clearing things up with the IRS. He won't go to jail because while he filed a ridiculous handwritten return, he filed. They will hound him to his dying day for every dollar, adding penalties all the while, but you really only go to jail if you didn't admit to income in the first place.

and there was a guy who claimed

apparently you won't face criminal charges after six years, but will face civil penalties

generally they have little desire to put people in jail, since it's hard for you to make the money to pay them from there. but millionaires who ignore the IRS entirely for several years are made an example of.

if there's anything everyone should take away from this - it's a) always file, always report income. not reporting income is a felony. and b) if you aren't sure you're reporting income, hire an accountant.

― da croupier, Tuesday, May 7, 2013 10:49 AM (17 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

do we really think this was just incompetence on hill's part or, like, maybe she didn't want to pay taxes like the little people sort of thing..

i don't really think "i don't want to pay taxes, i'm special!" or "oh wow, i didn't realize what i was doing" is a binary here. most of the time when high profile people get nabbed for this they were getting horrifically bad advice, like wesley snipes, whose advisors were given even bigger sentences than he was. But it seems like she just went off the grid in a way you just can't when you have that much coming in residuals.

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2013/05/lauryn_hill_court_tax_evasion.html

The judge credited Hill for living an exemplary life in the years before her failure to file taxes and noted several times that Hill had no prior criminal record.

She also said admiringly that Hill had carved out a career of "outstanding and unparalleled accomplishments in the arts," called her "inspirational" and noted, "Her solo album is considered one of the most important in the history of women’s recordings."

But Arleo also pointed out that Hill, who had attended Columbia University, was an intelligent woman who knew her taxes were due.

While "it is … not lost on me that all state and federal taxes were paid" by Hill over the weekend, the judge said, it is "inexplicable to me why they were not paid" before, given Hill’s assets, including several homes in South Orange.

The fact that Hill may have gone "underground" to escape society or the recording industry, Arleo concluded, "doesn’t explain or justify her failure to file tax returns."

"They can be done quietly and underground," the judge said.

Ready or not, here we come, you can't hide... gonna fiiiiiiind you, and get OUR mon-ey!

hill said during the sentencing that she is giving voice to the powerless and thus was being silenced. considering that she hasn't actually had much to say (or sing) in public for a long time, what "voice" is she giving to anyone? not to mention that everything she said was a red herring and most of it was just batshit. i'm not convinced she's capital-C crazy; she just seems to default to blaming everything but herself in any situation.

i'm pretty curious whether she dropped the people previously handling her money or if they dropped her

funny that during the three year period she wanted to "defer" paying taxes to protect her family from the industry, she somehow managed to sing a new song over the closing credits of an animated movie

parsing her tumblr statement, posted back when she plead guilty last year, it sounds like she decided she was going to ignore her taxes until she figured out how to work outside the record company system.

http://mslaurynhill.tumblr.com/post/24689947994/it-was-reported-yesterday-that-ms-lauryn-hill-has

Learning from the past, insulating friends and family from the influence of external manipulation and corruption, is far more important to me than being misunderstood for a season! I did not deliberately abandon my fans, nor did I deliberately abandon any responsibilities, but I did however put my safety, health and freedom and the freedom, safety and health of my family first over all other material concerns! I also embraced my right to resist a system intentionally opposing my right to whole and integral survival.

I conveyed all of this when questioned as to why I did not file taxes during this time period. Obviously, the danger I faced was not accepted as reasonable grounds for deferring my tax payments, as authorities, who despite being told all of this, still chose to pursue action against me, as opposed to finding an alternative solution.

My intention has always been to get this situation rectified. When I was working consistently without being affected by the interferences mentioned above, I filed and paid my taxes. This only stopped when it was necessary to withdraw from society, in order to guarantee the safety and well-being of myself and my family.

ignoring the whole "state of mind" thing, there are lots of people in various walks of life who think "hey i'm just not going to file for a year or two until i get my shit together, hopefully no one will notice."

granted most of them don't say that while hundreds of thousands of dollars in residuals and royalties are coming in, and they're singing over footage of CGI penguins.

she deserves a "B" at obfuscatory bullshit at best

she is actually in jail now :(

::tiny violin for multi-millionaires who don't pay taxes::

It could all be so simple

Just pay your damn taxes. What's so hard about that?

Good, fuck off.

Utterly tedious human being

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=biHJ6S91xBY

:(

I actually have super huge sympathy for her. "Just pay your taxes" is an easy thing to say if you're getting pay stubs, but when you're talking about 300 contracts a year, tiny paycheques from disparate sources, big money in but big expenses, I have nothing but sympathy for this woman

Well, I think that's where the "get an accountant" criticism comes in tbh

It's so much more complicated than that.

I got three years behind. In 2009 I had to file in 14 countries. I had the government taxing me on several contracts that hadn't been settled or were in dispute. Every accountant I talked to was "you have to take care of this yourself, I have no idea where ever to start".

well presumably SOME accountant knows how to do that stuff, and one would think that LH is the type of person who could afford said accountant

When I finally filed 2009 (last year), was audited on it (and passed with flying colours), the tax agency took a look at my money in and assessed me for 2010 and 2011, but of course, didn't factor in the expenses (paying my employees, flights and accommodations, etc.) and I suddenly got a bill for more than a quarter-million dollars. "It's not up to us to provide you with expenses". Look in my bank account, I said, this assessment is crazy. I might possess a tenth of that. "When you owe us more than 250K," they continued, "we move ahead with legal action." It was Brazilian. It took me two months of solid bookkeeping for each year I was behind. I can't even imagine how fucked Lauryn must've been but I don't think it's as simple as "lazy, crazy Lauryn Hill, behind on her taxes? tsk tsk tsk"

The taxation system is really well designed for people with single or dual occupations but it's really fucking tough for people who're trying to collect on 300+ contracts a year. I mean, I don't know, maybe the woman is a crook, but the number of people who, during my own ordeal, were just like "pay your taxes goddammit!" were jerks who get T4s, copy a couple numbers, think about writing off their car payments, and get it done in an afternoon. Just saying.

judging other people is so fucking fun though. i think that's pretty incontrovertible.

:)

well her defense doesn't seem to be 'this shit was really complicated and I screwed up'

'I also embraced my right to resist a system intentionally opposing my right to whole and integral survival.'

"get a therapist" or "get away from your terrible cheating headfucking husband" would probably have been the best advice for lauryn tbh (and i mean this with no snark, i have a massive amount of sympathy for what are clearly serious emotional problems that are being indulged by the industry so they can squeeze some cash out of her)

Yeah, well:

This motherfucking tax collector on the phone was saying "I'm sorry to hear that your mother-in-law died. But I went through that whole process myself with my dad in palliative care and my life went on, you know? I still had to pay bills" and I was shaking with rage, Barbara had died the week before, my boyfriend had been nursing her all year, so fucking what if we hadn't done our bookkeeping. And we don't even have kids. I make no secret that I'm a state-loving commie, but once I finish filing 2012 I am going to devote all my time to getting this woman fired

Sorry to clutter the Lauryn Hill thread with my personal rage but I'd been stewing about this all week

and stevie otm as always

well that's fucking horrible

for all that the IRS is getting demonized now, my dealings with them have never been like that, and I kind of extrapolate that experience internationally when I probably shouldn't; also my dealings with them have been proactive rather than reactive and it may be that that worked in my favor

goon yr tax experience sounds nightmarish

Yeah that's terrible. Not a comparable situation at all, but I get where your emotion is coming from. My tiny violin remains specifically for multi-millionaires, because I have no idea how much money she must have run through since The Score to not have the relatively small amount it would've taken to keep her out of jail. I've had some bad tax issues myself, and they happened bacause I was irresponsible. She doesn't get to opt out of being an adult just because she's a hippie or a celebrity.

True, but multimillionaire celebrities can sometimes (usually) attract less-than-scrupulous accountants/business managers.

See, that too. And I'm not contesting anybody's right to their tiny violins. But I sympathize with her. It has long been a Big Frustration Of Mine that they don't teach you (or at least, they didn't teach me or many of my friends) in high school, like right away, "this is how taxation works. Get ready to be taxed," because I think many people get to age 23, age 25 (age 32 in once instance I can think of) having no idea that they need to file! I didn't know until I was 24, I thought paying taxes was something people did when buying groceries.

one of the first things my parents did when I got my first job in high school was show me a 1040-EZ, even though I didn't make enough money to be required to file

it's true, though, that none of this was actually covered in school as far as I can remember

It's times like this when I'm relieved to have an accountant for a father-in-law.

It has long been a Big Frustration Of Mine that they don't teach you (or at least, they didn't teach me or many of my friends) in high school, like right away, "this is how taxation works. Get ready to be taxed," because I think many people get to age 23, age 25 (age 32 in once instance I can think of) having no idea that they need to file!

wow didn't know they need to file at all? that's...special. when i didn't file, i sure as hell knew i was doing something wrong that had consequences.

but i totally agree that it should be, like, a course you take in high school or a major part of Home Ec or something.

it's unbelievable that it's not taught in schools tbh - it's not in the uk either - and most people don't need to learn about the logistics and paperwork because in normal jobs tax is just deducted straight out of your salary. when i went freelance i was completely unaware that anything would be different, and then when i realised it was i had zero idea what to actually do, who to contact etc. i still don't feel like i 100% understand how it works

yeah! me too! I'm really fortunate, my boss at age 24, when he heard I hadn't ever filed, he got damn fatherly at me "what do you mean you don't file? do you not walk on these sidewalks? do you not drink from these faucets?!" and sat at my desk while I googled "how do you pay taxes" and I was like whoa! Best boss ever.

in the US if you have a normal job it's deducted automatically too but you STILL have to file a tax return every year

I'd heard inklings of it from people-- "Oh I just got my tax return back!"-- but considering this was a hand-to-mouth, didn't own a computer period of my life, it just seemed like something rich people did

yeah one of my housemates after college was a carpenter who did mainly contract work, and it was a red-tape nightmare for him to do his taxes every year.

Add daily 8-hour commutes, bankrolling accommodations and travel, 10 different kinds of currency and 14 countries to file in and you've got an idea of the situation. My spreadsheets literally had a column for Czech kroner. And another for zloty. And four more for ISK, DOK, NOK and SEK. Happily I did't go to Asia until the next year. I'm not complaining! I chose this life! Bergen was beautiful etc.

(hug)

http://pitchfork.com/news/52540-listen-lauryn-hill-consumerism/

I can't tell if I even like this or not. It has the stench of slam poetry all over it, but the track itself is pretty damn good.

whoa i missed "consumerism" at the time. that's pretty powerful stuff there.

it's ace, isn't it? it's like she's gone all Consolidated or something.

absolutely packed with ideas

j0rdan said it well - http://www.thefader.com/2013/11/28/live-lauryn-hill-bowery-ballroom-prison-homecoming-show-revie/#/0

It wasn’t until the encore that Hill stopped to speak at any length, and it was after she performed her most recent song, “Consumerism,” over the beat for Busta Rhymes’ “Don’t Touch Me (Throw Da Water On ‘Em).” “Consumerism” is almost impossibly knotty in both meaning and structure, and as Hill rapped the song her mouth was unable to keep up with the words firing out of her brain. She recognized this, and noted after the track’s conclusion that her new material (including “Neurotic Society [Compulsory Mix]”) was so wordy because it is the product of bottled-up emotion. She mimed the seething rattle of a machine gun, intimating that her voice is a weapon that not even she can completely control.

Then she recited some of the lyrics to “Consumerism” slowly and with no beat, as if she was doing spoken word. Modernism has created modern prisons/ Neo-McCarthyisms, new colonialisms… Impositions, superstitions, violence and contradictions/ False pretense and no convictions. This is dense and theoretical stuff, but one only needs to know names like Edward Snowden or Renisha McBride to argue that “Neo-McCarthyisms” and false pretenses and no convictions are more pertinent topics of discussion than Macklemore’s self-gratifying stances or Lorde’s distaste for gold teeth and champagne. But then again, Ms. Hill had to pause and spell it out for even her most fervent fans.

the unplugged album's pretty dense and unwieldy too. i think i wrote one of the few positive reviews of that.

that last paragraph is terrific

haaa i remember that review!!! if it hadn't been the era when you had to pay to hear music i'd've listened to it on the strength of that

xp

has she given any interviews since leaving prison?

xp thank you! i was in a very emo place when i wrote it

thanks guys

one thing that she seemed to be hinting at is that her two new tracks are more like necessary venting and not a blueprint for all her material going forward

we'll see tho. i feel like radio would still welcome her back if she put out a song that was more r&b

this just in: lauryn hill still lucid, powerful, very much not crazy

https://soundcloud.com/mslaurynhill/black-rage-sketch

(thread title pisses me off more than any other on ilx and really should be changed)

Yeah, this one and "Courtney Love - Cash Cow or Evil Bitch" are pretty rank.

yeah if I wanted to see women excoriated and insulted en masse i'd open a tennis thread

Yeah, sorry about that. Change away. Been a few years.

The floor is open for suggestions.

lex otm

Lauryn Hill Practically Perfect in Every Way

How about just "Lauryn Hill" please that way we could leave out the virgin/whore complex entirely.

wait where does "crazy" fall on the virgin/whore axis I am confused

somewhere between "literal-minded" and "specious gendered character judgments are the Same Bad Things"

bump

it's sort of infuriating to see the threads that are getting 100 new answers right now while no one cares about this song

i think the lyrics are very powerful and i love lauryn hill but there's not much that can revive "my favorite things" for me today except for maybe coltrane

i remember thinking the same of "killing me softly" once upon a time

not sure what to say abt "black rage", lex, other than that it's quite moving. love the background ambience, kids voices & such, that froggy bass tone, the way her voice breaks on "denial of selves". would love to hear a more fully developed version, but the intimacy of the sketch would likely be lost.

An ilxer reviewed it for Pitchfork and its on Pitchfork's best tracks list for 2014. Maybe if someone talks about it on a Pitchfork thread it will get more attention

I got bored about halfway through

it's sort of infuriating to see the threads that are getting 100 new answers right now while no one cares about this song

are you seriously bummed that the feebs of ilm aren't dribbling their "insight" all over this great track? it doesn't matter.

yeah I'm sure glad those feebs aren't here

endless permutations of lol she is crazy get a dude down

all I'm saying is you can have a perfectly nice thread without looking askance at all the people who AREN'T posting

still think this is her most slept on post-miseducation track https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LN8wDMtJrM

Because I'm doing remote supply/substitute for a grade 6 class today, and I was looking for some birthdays to commemorate, I can tell you that Lauryn Hill is 46 and Stevie Nicks is 73.

i’m halfway through “jerusalem” and good fucking god the unplugged album is terrible so far. but apparently it was therapeutic for her so that makes it ok.

mr. snide

tbf it isn't very good.

I remember loving it at the time, but my dad had just died and I was in the market for something so anguished and ready to bleed. I don't have any inclination to hear it now, and tbh a number of her subsequent concerts, which have veered from moments of inspiration among waves of dross and, well, unbroken waves of dross, have eaten up my tolerance for her, though a friend was recently raving about a Nina Simone tribute record she was involved with.

i'm halfway through a mr snrub revive and good fucking god it's terrible so far. but apparently it was therapeutic for him so that makes it ok.