There’s a lot of miseducation out there andLauryn Hillwants to set the record straight.
In a new open letter posted to the online publishing platformMedium, the 5-time Grammy-winning singer, 43, is speaking out against years of rumors while taking on disgruntled former employee, musician Robert Glasper. Hill’s words come on the heels of the recent20th anniversaryof her hit albumThe Miseducation of Lauryn Hill.
“I’ve remained patient and quiet for a very long time, allowing people to talk, speculate, and project, while keeping my nose to the grindstone fighting for freedoms many folks aren’t even aware matter,” Hill says opening her 2700-word essay. She continues, “People can sometimes confuse kindness for weakness, and silence for weakness as well. When this happens, I have to speak up.”
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“I have come across the occasional musician who thinks they already know what I want,” she writes in her response. “I am never trying to intentionally hurt anyone’s feelings btw, but when people insist that they know you and don’t, you may have to be equally as firm to demonstrate otherwise.”
When it comes to Glasper’s claims about what she expects from her employees, “I have my own idea of what works for me. That shouldn’t offend,” she writes, adding, “I never told anyone not to look me in the eye, that may have been something someone said assuming what I wanted.”
Hill does admit to demanding a certain level of respect. “And yes,” she writes. “‘Ms. Hill’ was absolutely a requirement. I was young, Black and female. Not everyone can work for and give the appropriate respect to a person in that package and in charge. It was important.”
As for Glasper calling her talent into question, “Who are you to say I didn’t do enough?” she poses. “Most people are probably just hearing your name for the first time because you dropped MINE in an interview…The Miseducationwas my only solo studio album, but it certainly wasn’t the only good thing I did.”
Lauryn Hill.Vince Bucci/AFP/Getty
Hill writes that the period Glasper refers to was a time of personal and professional upheaval. After addressing him head on, she turns to a number of common perceptions of her and her work.
In response to the claim that she stole her music, and the widely held assumption that she is not able to perform the original renditions of her hits fromMiseducationfor legal reasons, she says that’s just not true.
“The myth that I’m not allowed to play the original versions of my songs is…a myth (anyone who’s seen my current show knows this),” she writes, adding that “I remix my songs live because I haven’t released an album in several years. There’s a ton of backstory as to why, but there’s no way I could continue to play the same songs over and over as long as I’ve been performing them without some variation and exploration. I’m not a robot.”
Another rumor she wants to shut down: “I do not hate white people,” she writes. “I do, however, despise a system of entitlement and oppression set up to exploit people who are different…My true white friends and colleagues and I discuss these schemes and machinations, and the distrust that people of color would naturally have toward such a system and towards those who agree with it.”
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In all, Hill says she stands proud of her accomplishments, as an artist, an activist—and a mom. “Let’s not forget that I am a mother of 6,” she writes of kids Sarah,Selah, Joshua, John and Zion with ex Rohan Marley, along with son Micah Hill. She adds her song “Zion” “gave encouragement to women during challenging pregnancies.”
“I was and continue to be a door opener, even if the blind don’t see it, and the prideful are too proud to admit it. I lived this, you watched this and heard about it.”
source: people.com
