Talib Kweli has some advice for people expressing negative feelings about Lauryn Hill: “If you have a negative experience at her concert, go home, put on The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill and the next time she does come through your town, don’t go to her concert. Problem solved.”
This comes from Kweli’s “In Defense Of Ms. Hill,” written for the site Cuepoint. It was written in response to another piece the site published on Sept. 23, “It’s Finally Time to Stop Caring About Lauryn Hill.”
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Kweli’s piece begins with an anecdote about Black Star, his group with Yasiin Bey (the rapper formerly known as Mos Def). “Yasiin once explained to me that when people pay to see him, they are paying to see what he feels like expressing,” writes Kweli. “So it doesn’t matter whether he does his ‘hits’ or not.”
This forms the basis of Kweli’s defense of Lauryn Hill, who released a highly successful solo album, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, in 1998, and has only released one album, MTV Unplugged No. 2.0, since then. (Kweli recorded a song inspired by the artist, “Ms. Hill,” which came out in 2005 on Right About Now: The Official Sucka Free Mix CD.)
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Kweli declares that, “No matter what Lauryn Hill decided to do after she gave us The Miseducation, never forget that she already gave us The Miseducation.” He links her with a number of other artists who have waited a long time between album releases. “D’Angelo and Sade have made us wait decades for music. Dr. Dre’s Detox may never be released. I don’t know the exact reasons why, nor do I care. Dr. Dre gave me N.W.A, The Chronic, and 2001… I feel like The Chronic was so good, I may need to give him some more bread, even with his Beats/Apple situation.”
Kweli ends by suggesting a solution for Lauryn Hill’s unhappy fans. “When you pay for a Lauryn Hill concert you are not paying for her to do what you want, you are paying for her to do what she wants. She is not an iPod nor is she a trained monkey… The world does not revolve around you… Get over yourself.”