*Lauryn Hill keeps a relatively low profile and rarely does interviews and the only time she makes headlines these days is when she’s several hours late for a live show.
But Ms. Hill had time on Monday to set the record straight about recent claims made against her by a former member of her band, Robert Glasper.
Glasper dished about the drama during an interview on The Madd Hatta Morning Show on 97.9 in Houston on Aug. 13, claiming Hill “stole music” for her acclaimed album “The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill” and that she mistreated her band and can’t even tune a guitar.
Peep the full interview below, he speaks about Hill around the 27-minute mark.
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As noted by Hip Hollywood, Hill was not having it though and penned an essay adressing his shady comments.
“I chose to wait until after the anniversary to post this,” she said in a message on Twitter. “Thank you everyone for the Love! I’d like to clear a few things up. -MLH”
She also posted a link to the essay published on Medium.com, read it here.
In it, she rejects the claim that she did not write the songs on “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill.” You may recall back in 2001, she settled a lawsuit with former collaborators over writing credits on the 1998 album.
“You may be able to make suggestions, but you can’t write FOR me. I am the architect of my creative expression,” she writes. She also dismissed the rumor that she’s not allowed to play the original versions of her songs, stating that she chooses to remix her songs “because I haven’t released an album in several years.”
She also responded to allegations that she mistreats her band, writing: “When you’re a popular artist or public figure, people can sometimes forget that you’re hiring them to perform a service, and that you’re not the one there to entertain THEM. I didn’t scream or yell. Maybe I didn’t provide the experience that a musician may have wanted or expected during that time, but I was straight-forward, direct, and about the business at hand.”
On the rumor that she required others not to look her in the eye, Hill says, “yes, [being addressed as] Ms. Hill was absolutely a requirement. I was young, Black and female.” To Glasper’s claim that other musicians like Stevie Wonder and Quincy Jones have achieved more than her but demanded less of their coworkers, Hill writes, “I adore Stevie, and honor Herbie and Quincy, who are our forebears, but they’re not women.”
Glasper worked with Hill back in 2008 also claimed she hadn’t “done enough to be so arrogant.”
L-Boogie fired back with: “Who are you to say I didn’t do enough?” she says. “Most people are probably just hearing your name for the first time because you dropped MINE in an interview, controversially. Taking nothing away from your talent, but this is a fact.”
Adding, “The Miseducation was my only solo studio album, but it certainly wasn’t the only good thing I did. I was also a member of the Fugees, another groundbreaking, multi-platinum selling group, who bridged social and cultural gaps, and were ambassadors of hip-hop all around this planet. We laid important groundwork upon which an entire generation of artists and musicians still stand. We broke through conventions and challenged limited world views every time we played.”
Glasper had not responded to Hill’s essay when this story was published.
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