After Lauryn Hill swept the Grammys along with her hip-hop masterpiece — 1998’s “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill” — it appeared as if the younger singer-rapper was poised to kill us along with her songs for many years for to come back.
However the game-changing artist, who influenced everybody from Drake to Adele, would largely disappear from music — save for the odd single and a few concert events — simply 4 years later, following the discharge of her second solo album, “MTV Unplugged: No. 2.0,” on Could 7, 2002. Twenty years after the previous Fugee dropped that dwell recording of latest folk-soul songs, it stays the final LP in a profession that appeared destined to achieve the prolific longevity of an Aretha Franklin or a Stevie Surprise.
Foreshadowing her retreat from the pop scene, the eight-time Grammy winner confessed her deep disillusionment with the music enterprise within the conversational interludes that make up a very good portion of the album.

“I’m simply retired from the fantasy half,” Hill informed the “MTV Unplugged” viewers, referencing the “public phantasm” that “held me hostage” throughout the “Miseducation” phenomenon. “I’m glad that I don’t should slave anymore.”
Far surpassing all expectations, “Miseducation” sold more than 10 million albums and received 5 Grammys. It was a crash course in superstardom — and all of the pressures and issues that got here with it — whereas Hill was additionally juggling being a younger mom with an increasing household.
“I believe we neglect Lauryn Hill was solely 23 years previous, and he or she was … pregnant with [second child] Selah, when the album was launched,” mentioned Kathy Iandoli, writer of “God Save the Queens: The Important Historical past of Girls in Hip-Hop.” “It’s not the best house to be in. And [after] she swept the Grammys, there’s simply super strain now to ship once more.”

Then there was a draining lawsuit filed in late 1998 by 4 musicians who sought co-writing and co-production credit on “Miseducation.” Hill finally settled out of court docket with them for a reported $5 million in 2001.
Simply months after settling the lawsuit, Hill, shorn of her trademark dreadlocks, taped “MTV Unplugged.” Whereas she described herself as “emotionally unstable” and “a multitude” throughout the present, she additionally mentioned that she was “at peace.”
Actually, then-“MTV Unplugged” producer Alex Coletti — whom Hill known as immediately about doing the present in July 2001 — was struck by Hill’s humorousness and her partaking method. “I didn’t know her to be that chatty within the instances I’d labored along with her [before],” he mentioned, “so I used to be simply stunned that she was in such a terrific temper.”

Whereas it was a radical reinvention for Hill — then pregnant with third baby Joshua — to be strumming the acoustic guitar as an alternative of bopping to hip-hop beats, there was no signal that this could be any kind of sendoff.
“I didn’t hear it as a lot as a swan track as I did her venting within the second about how she felt about every little thing round her,” mentioned Iandoli.
And whereas “she was undoubtedly on a brand new path,” Coletti mentioned, “this didn’t appear to be somebody who was strolling away from the music enterprise.”

However Hill’s disillusionment with the music enterprise grew after the “Unplugged” album turned off both fans and critics. Simply three years after her massive Grammy night time, there have been rumblings that Hill had misplaced “that factor” that had made her a celebrity.
“She was written off [as having] misplaced her contact,” mentioned Iandoli. “It become extra of a smear marketing campaign … Individuals had been saying stuff like, ‘Lauryn Hill appeared homeless onstage.’ You may solely criticize and poke at somebody for thus lengthy. She’s a human being.”
It actually didn’t assist that Hill developed a repute as an unreliable performer who notoriously confirmed up late to concert events over time. In the meantime, Hill’s household continued to develop: She went on to have two extra kids with longtime associate Rohan Marley (son of reggae legend Bob) earlier than they broke up in 2011. That very same yr she had a sixth child, Micah, by one other man, whose identification is just not publicly identified.

Two years later, Hill needed to serve three months in jail for tax evasion.
And final yr, Hill told “Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Albums” podcast that her label, Columbia Data, hasn’t precisely been pushing to get her again within the studio. “The wild factor is nobody from my label has ever known as me and requested how can we allow you to make one other album,” she mentioned in an announcement.
Nonetheless, there have been glimmers that the Newark, New Jersey, native, now 46, may get her groove again. Final September, she reunited with the Fugees for a World Citizen live performance at Decrease Manhattan’s Rooftop at Pier 17, and he or she joined Nas on “Nobody,” from his 2021 album “King’s Illness II.”
On the monitor, Hill rapped about her absence from the recording trade, celebrating her long-time liberation from the sport as a private victory: “All my time has been targeted on my freedom now/Why would I be a part of ’em once I know that I can beat ’em now?”