Be honest, brutally honest. That is what's going to maintain relationships.
Being young and female in America, you watch a lot of TV and grow up on false images of what love truly is.
Each one is supposed to pull someone else outta the pit.
Every time truth comes we hate it, because it's coming against our ego. Are you going to let the ego come between you and this person you love?
Everybody has a choice. I am not here to shove my light down everybody's throat. For those who don't want it, I have nothing to defend.
Everyone is in the same situation, at different levels and in different places.
Everything we do should be a result of our gratitude for what God has done for us.
For a while, the genre seemed to be just about sex and crime. Rappers are storytellers; the stories don't need to be true!
From the first time someone says, Who do you think you are? we learn how to repress.
From the time that you are a child, you grow up repressing yourself.
God said, All right, I'm gonna show you. I made you what you are. God takes care of me. I'm just the one who delivers the message.
God teaches me about reality, so when he tells me to do something, I do, because I'm led to.
Hip-Hop isn't just music, it is also a spiritual movement of the blacks! You can't just call Hip-Hop a trend!
I am happy to sing these songs. There is no obligation here.
I am just beginning to be more comfortable with my identity.
I am no longer going to become a fictional character to please people. That's too much work.
I am up there onstage alone with that guitar. I don't have to consider no one else and whether they are comfortable. I need very little.
I believe God will make a way.
I don't even call it a show anymore. It's just expression. It's a sharing. The show is over. Now it's just Lauryn.
I don't know anybody that's not emotionally unstable or schizophrenic.
I don't need anybody to market or promote me. If people don't want to hear this music, then it's not for them. You cannot please everybody.
I got into direct confrontation with everybody I love.
I have a problem with procrastination. I have a great deal of difficulty deciding what to wear. It's a woman thing.
I have inner peace. It's a different person.
I hope that by people seeing the result of freedom that they'll want some, too.
I like a brother that cuts to the chase.
I need to be surrounded by people as passionate and as dedicated as I am.
I never did anything I'm really ashamed of.
I ran very fast in the wrong direction.
I spent six months in the studio banging my head against the wall. Now something has to give, and it's not going to be me.
I started to see that my concept of spirituality was totally wrong.
I tried to manipulate and control people, and I harbored resentment. I wanted to be forgiven, but I wouldn't forgive others.
I was always checking and balancing and validating myself.
I was unhappy with my life. I had acquired everything I thought I wanted, only to find out, This is it?
I was very confused. I didn't understand the difference between rebellion against God and rebellion against the system that's not God.
I went to Jamaica for six months, and in Jamaica there was a lot of stillness.
I wouldn't even hold my kids sometimes because I didn't want them to spit up on me when I was dressed for an awards show.
I wouldn't try to put myself in a box or put God in a box.
I'm talking to the people in my head, too.
If they only showed Love, they would own love.
In relationships, we find it difficult to be blatantly honest, because we are afraid to hurt somebody's feelings.
It seems like I have these big entourageS. I don't know if there is going to be any more band.
It was never about me. It was never about the person.
It's like the pulpit. We think that's the church, but that's the wrong concept.
It's not easy for people who aren't used to the attention and then get thrown into the spotlight to stay humble.
Just because I have a guitar, it doesn't mean that changes me. I still rhyme, I still sing.
Long after I'm done singing and rapping, the Refugee Project will be here making a difference.
Music has no external influence; that's why it was pure. It's from the inside out.
My pilot is lit again. My firelight for recording is back.
My voice being raspy doesn't change the words. I'm sorry that I can't run up the scale and back, but this ain't about me.
Nobody's going to force me to do something against my will. What do I owe anybody that I should submit my will to them?
None of us know how long we're going to be here.
Now you are meeting another Lauryn, so it's good to be reintroduced.
Our first album was a stupid mistake by the record company. They tried to sell us as an alternative act. A big mistake!
Our podium is the music. It's really important that we stay focused, because things become misconstrued in the media.
Real religion is no religion at all.
Reality is easy. It's deception that's the hard work.
That person had songs and could play guitar, but Lauryn had to look a certain way. It took two years of dying to finally accept who I was.
That strong mother doesn't tell her cub, Son, stay weak so the wolves can get you. She says, Toughen up, this is reality we are living in.
The flesh will always try to talk you out of it.
The less I have, the freer I am to do whatever I want to do.
There are millions of people holding their breath waiting for this fantasy to return... it took a lot of time for me to work through.
There was never an official breakup. We all had our own projects. We're all creative.
Think black love, think universal love. Just think love.
This brother shared with me, and now I share with my husband and he can share with somebody. That is how it is supposed to work.
This life is a process of learning.
We call ourselves creators and we just copy.
We can't plan life. All we can do is be available for it.
We don't want people to have expectations of us, but then we have expectations of everybody else.
We have these images, these icons before us that are not reality.
We have to make sure the music and the message and the words and all the elements come through in our songs and every time we appear in public.
We swapped out instruments. Clef even thought about doing a live performance with an accordion. We wanted to surprise people.
We think the man with the best rap will protect and save us, but it's not usually that way. Love is something deeper and purer.
We were all crazy about music and almost all the money we had, we spent for equipment.
We've got to protect the music and make sure it never gets exploited.
What was freely given to me, I freely give.
You don't know how much artists go through to make it look so easy. It's all in the practice.
You say, Wait a minute, God, you spared me from a slave job in an office, and now I have a slave job onstage. I am not on that clock no more.
You wander into this industry like it's going to be a cakewalk. We're not presented with the facts. We're presented with the sale.
Lauryn Hill's music video "Doo Wop (That Thing)" was ranked #74 on VH1's 100 Greatest Videos.
Lauryn Hill's 1998 album The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill was ranked #32 on Rolling Stone magazine's 50 Essential 'Woman In Rock' Albums.
Lauryn Hill's 1998 album The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill was ranked #37 on VH1's 100 Greatest Albums.
Lauryn is 5'3?" (1.61 m).
You can share a link to this page with your friend!