After months of legal battles it came out today that Lauryn Hill is going to be spending 3 months is jail, 3 months under house arrest, and 9 months of supervision when she gets out of jail. Hill is going to jail for tax evasion over the $1.8 million she earned from 2005 to 2007. During her hearing she made a statement that referenced slavery saying, "I was put into a system I didn't know the nature of. ... I'm a child of former slaves. I got into an economic paradigm and had that imposed on me,".
NEW Lauryn Hill (out of nowhere) today as "Neurotic Society" is a politically-themed track lyrically, spit at a fast pace over an uptempo production, that's quite frankly neurotic. The sound lives up to the concept, but it's too all over the place for me.
Lauryn Hill has been at the center of a lot of controversy this year. First there was the whole tax evasion situation and more recently her former Fugee, one time Haiti presidential candidate, who is 43, but apparently looks and feels 26, Wyclef Jean, called her out for supposedly lying to him about being the father of her first son Zion and accused her of some down low creeping.
The eight-time Grammy winner, known for her incredible singing and masterful rap skills, and equally eclectic personality, steered clear of responding directly to Jean. Instead she opted to address the situation on stage at one of her stops for the Nas: Life Is Good tour. Here’s what she had to say:
"When you are on the other side of liberation, just make sure you are not late. Be careful how you judge, there is a lot of deception out there. A lot of misunderstanding out there. A lot of miscommunication out there. A lot of false information out there. And notice, out of all the people who talk talk talk, who’s the silent one. There’s a lot of chat, but me…. And you know why? Let me tell you why I don’t chat back. Because I know that my brothers and my sisters are often times pawns in a bigger scheme so when they, under pressure, attack me, I love them still. It’s called the high road. Try taking it sometimes. I’m not going to play my hand like the suppressive system would have me play my hand. Because I know [about] the oppression that took place in Haiti, and Jamaica, and America, and Africa and Europe. So just be patient. The truth always surfaces and especially, all you black folks out there who have had black mothers who carried you through thick and thin, when the system wanted to call them crazy, just remember that… You know I know I’m not crazy, that’s why I can use the word so freely. Crazy like a fox? Ahead of the curve. People don’t like people that’s ahead of the curve but unfortunately that’s not my problem."
- Lauryn Hill
She hasn’t changed. And I love her for it. Check her out with Nas Wednesday at the Congress Theater.
Nas & Lauryn Hill have just announced they will be teaming up this fall for a joint tour. Nas will kick the tour off with a solo show on October 6th in Columbia, Maryland. Ms. Hill will join Nas on October 29th in Dallas, and following that, they will go on to have 9 more shows together, before the tour ends on New Years Eve in NYC. Check out the dates below to see when they will be in a city near you. Tickets will be on sale 9/21.
