Lauryn Hill: Hip-Hop's Hottest Star Balances Love, Motherhood And Fame - singer - Interview

Ebony, May, 1999 by Melissa Ewey

Hip-Hop's Hottest Star Balances Love, Motherhood And Fame

ON the second day of her first American solo tour, Lauryn Hill was exhausted. She had just finished a successful performance in Detroit and was on her way to Chicago when she caught the flu. Feverish and sore, she was tempted to cancel the Saturday night concert.

Then she remembered her fans and where she was. Flu or no flu, the show had to go on. "This is the same town where Michael Jordan can get the flu and still score points," she told the sold-out crowd. Summoning all of her energy, the 23-year-old hip-hop queen gave a spectacular performance. Four days later she scored a slam-dunk at the Grammys, becoming the first woman to win live awards, including the prestigious Album of the Year.

Triumph over adversity is nothing new to Hill, who handles the trappings of fame like a veteran performer. What is relatively new is balancing the demands of life as music's "It" girl while being a good mother and planning a wedding with her fiance, Rohan Marley. In addition, Hill is credited with hip-hop's popular evolution into the "neo-soul" sound and influencing mainstream fashion trends. Many women twice her age might crack under the pressure, but Hill stays grounded thanks to her strong personal relationships, deep religious beliefs and an overwhelming desire to give back to the community.

1999 is turning out to be Hill's best year yet: In addition to three R&B Grammy Awards, she also took home the prize for best new artist. Her solo debut, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, won album of the year honors. becoming the first hip-hop release in history to do so. "Wow, this is so amazing," said a stunned Hill as she accepted the Album of the Year award. "This is crazy, because this is hip-hop music." Hill was probably the only person to be surprised: She was the odds-on favorite to win. Earlier this year, Hill won two Billboard Music Awards, three NAACP Image Awards and an American Music Award. Despite her unprecedented accomplishments, Hill is determined not to let success go to her dreadlocked head. "There are all sorts of temptations that imbalance life sometimes," she says. "Right now, I feel sort of numb because I'm not supposed to feel smug or complacent about anything. I've always surrounded myself with family and people who weren't afraid to tell me the truth, so that helps."

Determined to keep her personal life out of the spotlight, Hill lives in the same South Orange, N.J., neighborhood in which she was raised, in a spacious three-story brick house with her patents, Marley, and their two children. Hill and Marley, son of reggae legend Bob Marley, plan to many soon. "It's just a matter of setting a date," says Hill.

Their plans for wedded bliss were almost cut short one morning in January when Marley, waiting for Hill outside a recording studio, fell asleep while his car was running. The ear caught fire, and an electrical malfunction disabled the doors and windows. Luckily, police smashed the car's windows and Marley escaped unharmed. Since that mishap the couple seems to be inseparable, even venturing out together in public for the first time in their relationship: Marley was by Hill's side at the Grammys and accompanied her to a benefit for The Refugee Project, Hill's non-profit organization dedicated to disadvantaged children.

Lauryn Hill is the youngest child of Mal Hill, a management consultant, and his wife, Valerie, a teacher. She and her older brother, Malaney, grew up surrounded by music and were encouraged to take lessons. "I don't remember my life without music," says Hill.

An overachiever at an early age, she was head cheer-leader, class president, a choir member, a straight-A student and founder of a breakfast program for needy students. Between school-work and extracurricular activities, she participated in "Amateur Night" on Showtime at the Apollo (she lost), played the part of a teenage runaway on the soap opera As the World Turns, and portrayed a gifted yet troubled student in Sister Act 2 opposite Whoopi Goldberg.

A member of the innovative rap group The Fugees since high school, Hill was pressured to go solo after the group's first album, Blunted on Reality, flopped. When the group's second album, The Score, topped the charts, she dropped out of Columbia University to pursue music full-time. Pressure to record a solo album grew, but Hill waited until pregnancy forced her to stop touring with the Fugees.

"The first album [with the Fugees], I was 16 and I was just happy to be in the studio," says Hill. "It wasn't until the second album that I started to really get involved on the production side and evolved as a writer." Hill worked toward fusing rap and hip-hop with the soulful vibes of her childhood. "I grew up with this tradition of classic soul ... very live, very raw music from the '60s to the early '70s. The first time I went outside of my spot [her home recording studio] and went into a real studio, I filled the place up with every instrument that I'd ever heard and loved all my life. The ideas were there, the thoughts and the concepts ... now, it's to a point where I've developed my sound and I want to expand on that and surround myself with people who can help me expand on that sound."