Lauryn Hill burst out into the popular music landscape — first as a member of the hip hop trio Fugees in the mid 1990s, and then again as a solo artist in the latter part of the decade.
Her debut studio album — The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill — would go on to garner acclaim from both fans and critics alike and sell 12 million copies following it’s release in August 1998.
Unexpectedly, fans never got another solo studio album from Hill, and in a new email interview she explained why.
‘The wild thing is no one from my label has ever called me and asked how can we help you make another album, ever. Ever. Did I say ever? Ever!’ she confessed during Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Albums podcast on Amazon Music.
Revelation: Lauryn Hill revealed why she never made a follow-up studio album to her wildly successful debut — 1998’s The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill — in an email interview on Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Albums podcast on Amazon Music
The New Jersey native, now 45, went on to disclose a wide array of pitfalls and strains following the release of The Miseducation and all the massive fame that followed.
Dissatisfied with the music industry and the toll that began to mount on herself and her family, Hill withdrew from public life about a year after the record dropped.
‘With the Miseducation, there was no precedent. I was, for the most part, free to explore, experiment and express,’ the Killing Me Softly star shared.
‘After the Miseducation there were scores of tentacled obstructionists, politics, repressing agendas, unrealistic expectations, and saboteurs everywhere. People had included me in their own narratives of their successes as it pertained to my album, and if this contradicted my experience, I was considered an enemy.’
She added, ‘Artist suppression is definitely a thing. I won’t go too much into it here, but where there should have been overwhelming support, there wasn’t any.’
The cost of success: The New jersey native talked about an array of pitfalls and strains that followed after the massive success of The Miseducation; the album has sold 12 million copies
Taking a stand: Feeling dissatisfied with the music industry and the toll on herself and her family, Hill withdrew from public life about a year after The Miseducation dropped
With that lack of support and subsequent stresses, Hill decided she didn’t want to subject herself or loved ones to another record, and all that came with that two decades ago.
‘The warp speed I had to move at in order to defy the norm put me and my family under hyper-accelerated, hyper-tense, and unfortunately an underappreciated pace,’ Hill explained.
‘I sacrificed the quality of my life to help people experience something that should have been unreachable before then. When I saw people struggle to appreciate what that took, I had to pull back and make sure I and my family were safe and good. I’m still doing that.’
The Miseducation is a neo soul and R&B album with songs that include elements of reggae and hip hop soul. It topped the US Billboard 200 for four weeks and the US Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums for six weeks.
Thrust into the spotlight! Hill burst out into the popular music landscape as a member of the successful hip hop trio Fugees in the mid 1990s
The first single released from the album — Lost Ones — hit number 27 on the US Billboard Hot 100. The follow-up — Doo Wop (That Thing) — debuted at number one on the Billboard Hot 100.
Three other songs from the album also charted: Ex-Factor, Everything Is Everything and To Zion.
Looking back, nearly 23-years later, Hill takes pride in the love and passion that was put into The Miseducation.
‘I think my intention was simply to make something that made my foremothers and forefathers in music and social and political struggle know that someone received what they’d sacrificed to give us, and to let my peers know that we could walk in that truth, proudly and confidently,’ she humbly stated.
The eight-time Grammy winner did come back into pubic life briefly when she taped an MTV Unplugged special, which featured her only singing and playing an acoustic guitar. It was turned into the album — MTV Unplugged No. 2.0 — and was released in May 2002. It debuted at number three on the Billboard 200 and was certified platinum in the US on June 2002.
Album for the ages: The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill had five hit singles including Lost Ones and Doo Wop (That Thing)