If you’re out near Iroquois Park this evening and hear the voice of an angel floating through the air, you’re probably not imagining things. It will be Lauryn Hill killing you softly with her fugee-la.
Lauryn Hill burst on the scene in the 90’s with hip-hop collective The Fugees, with rappers Wyclef Jean and Praz Michel, she was the satin voiced crooner that brought a sense of heft to their masterpiece album The Score. The Score produced a string of hits for the group including: “Ready Or Not” and “Fu-Gee-La”, as well as covers of “Killing Me Softly” and “No Woman, No Cry”.
Unfortunately egos and tensions within the group mounted and The Fugees only managed to put out two albums (and one Greatest Hits album). There have been attempts at reunions over the years, with failed European Tour, an appearance in “Dave Chapelle’s Block Party”, and even an abandoned attempt at a third and final album.
Nothing has materialized.
Hill proceeded to work out her solo career amid all of the drama of The Fugees, and managed to record her first solo album The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill in 1998. For the second time in her career, she managed to assemble a landmark album in The Miseducation of…. The album mixed R&B, soul, and hip-hop into a beautiful collection of songs featuring a wide range of collaborators like Carlos Santana and Ziggy Marley, and produced the monster-hit song “Doo Wop (That Thing)”.
Sadly, Hill has not produced any new music since 2002, when she released Mtv Unplugged 2.0, which was a live album featuring all new material, not the usual greatest hits collection. She has been a controversial and combative figure in the music scene her entire career, and tonight she will bring that internal struggle of an artist to Louisville, live on-stage at Iroquois Amphitheater for what is guaranteed to be a spectacular once in a life time performance.
