“I want my music to touch real people. I’m still trying to figure myself out, like most people…. because I’m still living and learning.” Lauryn Hill
A highly acclaimed hip-hop singer, songwriter and producer, Lauryn Hill rocked the hip-hop tradition when she and her mates in The Fugees, Prakazrel Michel and Wyclef Jean, released the popular recycle of Roberta Flack’s “Killing Me Softly” (1996). The single and its album, The Score, won two Grammy Awards and became a multi-platinum album. After the group’s separation, Hill made her solo debut with The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill (1998), in which she also served as a songwriter and producer. Her genius effort for the multi-platinum album garnered her five Grammy Awards and five Grammy nominations in one night. Her next solo album, MTV Unplugged No. 2.0 (2002), became a platinum hit.
A multi-talented performer, Hill also branched out to acting. She made appearances in the soap opera “As the World Turns” (1991) and the TV series “Here and Now” (1992). She was also seen in such films as the Steven Soderbergh’s drama King of the Hill (1993), the comedy Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit (1993), Daddy’s Girl (1996, TV), the low-budget comedy Hav Plenty (1997), Restaurant (1998) and Turn It Up (2000, as Leslie). Outside the spotlight, Hill, whose dreadlocks and husky voice became a trademark, is known as a humanitarian. In 1996, she founded The Refugee Camp Youth Project, a nonprofit organization that supports a two-week camp for at-risk youth, well-building projects in Kenya and Uganda, as well as a rap concert in Harlem to promote voter registration. For her efforts, Hill received an Essence Award in 1996. One of 1999’s Ebony magazine’s “100+ Most Influential Black Americans,” in 2003, Hill referred to Catholic officials as committing “corruption, exploitation and abuses” after a boys’ molestation by Catholic officials and the suppression of the offenses by Catholic Church officials.
As for her romantic life, Hill, who now prefers to be called “Ms. Hill,” was once romantically involved with her band mate Wyclef Jean. She is now the wife of Rohan Marley, son of the late Bob Marley, with whom she raises three sons and a daughter.
