Lauyryn Hill is an American singer, songwriter rapper, record producer and actress. Let’s see some amazing facts and trivia about her!
1.Her full name is Lauryn Noelle Hill.
2.She was born on May 26, 1975.
3. Raised mostly in South Orange, New Jersey, Hill began singing with her music-oriented family during her childhood.
4. She enjoyed success as an actress at an early age, with her older brother Graham Hill, appearing in a recurring role on the television soap opera As the World Turns and starring in the 1993 film Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit.
5. In high school, Hill was approached by Pras Michel to start a band, which his cousin, Wyclef Jean, soon joined. They renamed themselves the Fugees and released the albums Blunted on Reality (1994) and the Grammy Award-winning The Score (1996).
6. In the latter record, which sold six million copies in the United States, Hill rose to prominence with her African-American and Caribbean music influences, her rapping and singing, and her rendition of the hit “Killing Me Softly”.
7. Hill’s tumultuous romantic relationship with Jean led to the split of the band in 1997, after which she began to focus on solo projects.
8. The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill (1998) remains Hill’s only solo studio album. It received massive critical acclaim, showcasing a representation of life and relationships and locating a contemporary womanist voice within the neo soul genre.
9. The album debuted at number one on the U.S. Billboard 200 and has sold approximately eight million copies there.
10. It included the singles “Doo Wop (That Thing)” (also a number one), “Ex-Factor” (became her biggest solo hit in UK), and “Everything Is Everything”. At the 41st Grammy Awards, the record earned her five awards, including Album of the Year and Best New Artist.
11. During this time she won numerous other awards and became a common sight on the cover of magazines.
12. Soon afterward, Hill dropped out of the public eye, dissatisfied with the music industry and suffering with the pressures of fame.
13. Her last full-length recording, the new-material live album MTV Unplugged No. 2.0 (2002), sharply divided critics and sold poorly compared to her first album and work with the Fugees.
14. Hill’s subsequent activity, which includes the release of a few songs and occasional festival appearances, has been sporadic and erratic.
15. Her behavior has sometimes caused audience dissatisfaction; a reunion with her former group did not last long. Her music, as well as a series of public statements she has issued, has become critical of pop culture and societal institutions
16. Hill has six children, five of whom are with Rohan Marley, son of reggae legend Bob Marley.
17. In 2012, she pleaded guilty to tax evasion for failure to pay federal income taxes, and in 2013, served a three-month prison sentence.
18. In January 2010, Hill returned to the live stage and performed in stops across New Zealand and Australia on the Raggamuffin Music Festival.
19. Many of the songs that Hill had performed and recorded over the past six years were included on an April 2010 unofficial compilation album titled Khulami Phase.
20. The album also features a range of other material found on the Ms. Hill compilation.
21. Hill appeared at the Harmony Festival in Santa Rosa, California, in June 2010, her first live American performance in several years.
22. An unreleased song called “Repercussions” was leaked via the Internet in late July 2010, debuting at number 94 on Billboard’s Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs (and peaked at number 83 the following week), making it her first Billboard chart appearance as a lead artist since 1999.
23. Hill joined the Rock the Bells hip-hop festival series in the U.S. during August 2010, and as part of that year’s theme of rendering classic albums, she performed The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill in its entirety for the first time.
24. She increased the tempo and urgency from the original recording, but at times had difficulty in communicating with her band.
25. In July 2011, Hill gave birth to her sixth child, Micah, her first not with Rohan Marley; the father remains publicly unknown.
26. In a long post to her Tumblr, Hill said that she had gone “underground” and had rejected pop culture’s “climate of hostility, false entitlement, manipulation, racial prejudice, sexism and ageism.” She added that, “When I was working consistently without being affected by the interferences mentioned above, I filed and paid my taxes. This only stopped when it was necessary to withdraw from society, in order to guarantee the safety and well-being of myself and my family.”
27. On June 29, 2012, Hill appeared in the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey in Newark and pleaded guilty to the charges; her attorney said she would make restitution for the back taxes she owed.
28. By April 22, 2013, Hill had paid back only $50,000 of the $554,000 she owed immediately; U.S. Magistrate Judge Madeline Cox Arleo criticized Hill, saying “This is not someone who stands before the court penniless. This is a criminal matter. Actions speak louder than words, and there has been no effort here to pay these taxes.”
29. Hill also faced possible eviction from her rented home in South Orange as well as a civil lawsuit from the town for running a business out of a home without a zoning permit.
30. On May 6, 2013, Hill was sentenced by Judge Arleo to serve three months in prison for failing to file taxes/tax fraud and three months house arrest afterwards as part of a year of supervised probation.
31. In the courtroom, Hill said that she had lived “very modestly” considering how much money she had made for others, and that “I am a child of former slaves who had a system imposed on them. I had an economic system imposed on me.”
32. Hill was released from prison on October 4, 2013, a few days early for good behavior, and began her home confinement and probationary periods
33. She put out a single called “Consumerism” that she had finished, via verbal and e-mailed instructions, while incarcerated.
34, In May 2015, Hill canceled her scheduled concert outside Tel Aviv in Israel following a social media campaign from activists promoting the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign.
35. Hill contributed her voice to the soundtrack for What Happened, Miss Simone?, a 2015 documentary about the life of Nina Simone, an American singer, pianist, and civil rights activist. Hill was originally supposed to record only two songs for the record, but ended up recording six.
36. She also served as a producer on the comp alongside Robert Glasper.
37. In April 2016, Hill hosted and headlined what was billed as the inaugural Diaspora Calling! festival at the Kings Theatre in Brooklyn.
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