Lauryn Hill: America’s Entertainer
Lauryn Hill delivers her best performance since the 1999 Grammy Awards (remember when she actually made good music?) in a video recently uploaded to YouTube, and she doesn’t sing a note. For almost 15 minutes Lauryn, who’s rocking a bag-lady-does-Oprah look, mugs (see above), uses the phrase “Western paradigm,” and rambles about her career and fame. She does this all in a borderline belligerent manner that totally reminds me of a pre-zonked Whitney Houston, Newport-nasty voice and all. Oh, and adding to the weirdness, the interviewer facilitating Lauryn’s chatter is none other than the sister of Technotronic rapper Ya Kid K. I know! Lauryn, it would seem, is at the tipping point and it’s freakin’ genius. It’s soooooo good to have her back.
Watch the video and read some of the best, most self-important quotes from it after the jump:
On her voice during the performance that preceded the interview: “It was there. The voice was there. It was there beautifully.”
On her break: “I kinda stopped and almost became a civilian again.”
On her craft: “It doesn’t really make sense for me to make music if I can’t make something that has a purpose.”
On her work environment: “We know that, you know, open heart surgery [you] wanna do that in the cleanest atmosphere possible. And when you’re dealing with people who make music, and write songs about the human condition, you’re really dealing with the human heart condition. And it’s important to do that in a clean and sanctified area.”
On her Legend, if you will: “Bob Marley took what he did so seriously. For him, it was a priesthood. For me it’s a priesthood.”
