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NPR Scores Rare Interview With Lauryn Hill

11:37 a.m. · June 29, 2010 · by Andrew Winistorfer

Lauryn Hill has started to make an uneasy transition back into performing, lining up dates at various little festivals and Rock the Bells this summer. Because she's out more often, interviews with the reclusive singer behind one of the best albums of the '90s (The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill) are more possible. NPR scored an extensive interview with Hill recently after the Harmony Festival in California, and Hill was surprisingly candid:

I ask her the question her fans have been asking each other for years: Why did you stop putting out music?

 

"There were a number of different reasons," she says. "But partly, the support system that I needed was not necessarily in place. There were things about myself, personal-growth things, that I had to go through in order to feel like it was worth it. In fact, as musicians and artists, it's important we have an environment — and I guess when I say environment, I really mean the [music] industry, that really nurtures these gifts. Oftentimes, the machine can overlook the need to take care of the people who produce the sounds that have a lot to do with the health and well-being of society, or at least some aspect of society. And it's important that people be given the time that they need to go through, to grow, so that the consciousness level of the general public is properly affected. Oftentimes, I think people are forced to make decisions prematurely. And then that sound radiates."

I'm not sure exactly what that means, but the fact that Hill is open to performing and doing interviews again should be good news to everyone. To read the whole thing, go here.