If you've followed Lauryn Hill's visit to the UK with even the slightest interest, you'll already be aware that it's been a bumpy ride. At her first show in London's Brixton Academy, Hill's excessive lateness, combined with her decision to perform remixed versions of every song, led to boos and walk-outs.
Our review of the night was far from glowing.
On Monday, we were given the opportunity to try again - this time in the smaller, more intimate Brooklyn Bowl. We were assured the sound quality would be better, and that she would be on stage on time. She wasn't. In fact, she wasn't on stage until 10.45pm. As to her set, it was supremely impressive and manic and frustrating, and there is essentially nothing about our first review that we would change.
In the light of Hill’s trip to the UK, a piece by hip hop musician Talib Kweli Greene, entitled 'In Defence Of Ms. Hill', was brought to our attention. It’s an eloquent and passionate rebuttal, in which Greene argues that Lauryn Hill "is not an iPod nor is she a trained monkey. She doesn’t have to do her hits and she doesn’t have to do the songs the way you want to hear them. She doesn’t owe you that. The world does not revolve around you, and you ain’t gotta like it. Get over yourself."
In all honesty, Greene makes a convincing, thought-provoking argument. Do we really have the right to criticise an artist for performing her own songs however she wants to perform them? In a word - yes. If Lauryn Hill doesn’t owe her fans anything, then we sure as hell don’t owe her our indiscriminate reverence. Artists have the inalienable right to perform their most beloved hits backwards, in Amharic, sped up fifty times and to come on stage six hours after they were supposed to. And their fans have the right to hate it.
Lauryn Hill is a phenomenally talented musician, and we are extremely grateful to her for The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill, and The Score, and even for Sister Act 2: Back In The Habit… but there is very little worse than when fans greet their idols’ every utterance with unwavering sycophancy. Yes, it is a terrible shame, and one tinged with commercial cynicism, when an artist flattens their own creative ambitions to cater for their fans – if the sole purpose of doing so is to sell more records. But to absorb feedback from the people who’ve funded your career, in order to make your music better, can be a wonderful and mutually beneficial decision.
As far as we’re aware, Greene wasn’t at any of Lauryn Hill’s UK gigs. He wasn’t there when fans who’d paid up to £110 for a ticket had to leave because she’d come on hours late, and they had no choice but to catch the last train. He wasn’t there when she performed a beautiful, moving rendition of ‘Mr Intentional’, or when she sped up and jazzed up 'To Zion' beyond recognition, leaving something behind in the process. Some of her re-imaginings were brilliant, fresh and awe-inspiring, and some of them felt rushed and hectic and messy. No we ain't got to like it, and we should probably "get over ourselves", but there we have it.
During the second performance we saw, presumably inspired by the negative reviews, Lauryn Hill told the crowd, “You know, it’s like making love – both of us have to enjoy it.” That’s absolutely true Lauryn, but did you really have to come so late and ignore all our feedback?
