Lauryn Hill Interview (page: 2 / 6) Singer, Songwriter & Record Producer	Print Interview

Do you feel pressure from the record company to produce a more commercial product?

Get the Flash Player to see this video. Lauryn Hill: I personally don't feel the pressure. The pressure is out there but I don't feel it. I really, really don't. It does exist. I've seen people, "Hey, where's that record company? You can't leave us hanging like that. We need something else...." or the record company, the window of opportunity is almost closed. But I just don't think that those rules apply to me. And not because of me, but I just think that it's something spiritual, or something bigger. I think that if you respond to the needs of the people that's timeless. There's not a window of opportunity for people's needs.

You've also talked about needing to live life in order to create.

Lauryn Hill: Yes, that was crucial.

Get the Flash Player to see this video. My whole life at a certain point was studio, hotel, stage, hotel, stage, studio, stage, hotel, studio, stage. I was expressing everything from my past, everything that I had experienced prior to that studio stage time, and it was like you have to go back to the well, in order to give someone something to drink. I felt like a cistern, dried up and like there was nothing more. And it was so beautiful, because normalcy, I returned to a normal situation with my children running around screaming, and it was wonderful. I walked down the street and I went grocery shopping and I loved it. Every minute of it I love. I find, even though it's raining, I just go outside. I look outside and I'm just so blessed to see it and to experience it, because for such a long time I was just indoors.

Sometimes, when success is really huge, one can become entrapped by it.

Get the Flash Player to see this video. Lauryn Hill: The whole concept of success, to me, is a little bit warped, because what are you being successful at in your house trapped? That's not successfully living. I don't buy into that whole concept of success that I have this mountain with this moat around it and then I get into my big car and drive to my destination and never see people. That's not my concept of success. My concept of successful living is escaping the matrix, as we've talked about. It has very little to do with what people think success is. I actually feel successful right now, even though I don't have an album out, or a video or a song on the radio, because I'm trying to be obedient to His will. I'm trying to be a loving and caring mother, a loving and caring wife-to-be, a loving and caring daughter, a loving and caring friend, a responsible person. And every day is another opportunity for me to be successful at that. The other stuff, I think it will come. I think -- I don't think, I know -- there are certain gifts that each of us have. The gifts you don't have to worry about so much, because God gave them to us. It's the living, it's the life, it's the now. Wisdom without understanding, what is it? You're so wise, you're so intelligent, but how do you apply that to your life? Is your life in turmoil?

You grew up in South Orange, didn't you? Were you born there?

Get the Flash Player to see this video. I was born in East Orange. I lived in Newark for a brief time, moved to New York for a short period of time, and then moved to South Orange. South Orange was interesting because it was this very diverse -- and I can't just say South Orange, I have to say the area surrounding South Orange -- because Newark is the city and the Oranges are the suburbs. Okay? And I lived in a suburb where it was, I'd say 50 percent, maybe 40 percent black, 60 percent Jewish. And I grew up with this very eclectic, just interesting exposure to all these different cultures. And of course Manhattan is right there, so from the time I was very young, exposed to the Jewish community, the Asian community, the West Indian community, the Cuban community, the Latin, just a myriad of cultures in this one area.

Were you interested in school?

Get the Flash Player to see this video. My mother was a teacher. She's an educator. But even if she wasn't, I really think I had a love for -- I don't know if it was necessarily for academics, more than it just was for achieving, period. If it was academics, if it was sports, if it was music, if it was dance, whatever it was, I was always driven to do a lot in whatever field or whatever area I was focusing on at the moment. So I did well in school, but learned a lot from that too, learned a lot from the school, the school atmosphere, the school setting. But so much of my experiences came around school, not so much in the classroom, but what took place outside the classroom. A lot of those life lessons were attained outside. Inside as well, but outside also.

It sounds like a very colorful environment.

Lauryn Hill: Oh, it was colorful all right.

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