Flashback to 1999: Lauryn was at the top of her game. After breaking on to the hip-hop scene as one of the three Fugees, she released her first solo album, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, which sat at the top of the Billboard R&B Album chart for six weeks and won her several Grammy awards. She began to branch out creatively, writing a screenplay about Bob Marley and worked briefly on two film projects; just when it seemed her career was about to take off, Lauryn Hill pretty much fell off the face of the earth.
Of that time in her life, Lauryn has been quoted as saying, "People need to understand that the Lauryn Hill they were exposed to in the beginning was all that was allowed in that arena at that time… I had to step away when I realized that for the sake of the machine, I was being way too compromised. I felt uncomfortable about having to smile in someone’s face when I really didn’t like them or even know them well enough to like them.
For two or three years I was away from all social interaction. It was a very introspective time because I had to confront my fears and master every demonic thought about inferiority, about insecurity or the fear of being black, young and gifted in this western culture."
She hasn't stopped creating music completely, but for the most part, Lauryn has spent the last eight years out of the public spotlight, quietly raising her five children.
The former Fugee was recently spotted with (almost all of) her kids at a mall in New Jersey, at, of all places, a book signing by none other than Martha Stewart. Kind of a strange photo-op, no?
Lauryn should totally use this pic as the cover of her next album.
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