We’ll present the evidence and let you decide, while also pondering whether we should be worried about her LouFest performance Sunday night in Forest Park.
Will she be late? How late will she be? Will she show up at all? Her fans have had those questions since the LouFest lineup was announced.
Let’s start by remembering Hill was one of the freshest, most invigorating presences in music when she made her post-Fugees solo debut in 1998 with “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill.”
But she has also been one of the most frustrating artists the past decade or so.
“Miseducation” was a perfect coming-together of hip-hop and R&B, with Hill excelling at both on tracks such as “Lost Ones,” “To Zion,” “Doo Wop (That Thing),” “Ex-Factor” and “Everything is Everything.”
What we didn’t know then was that would be the only studio album we’d get. Since then, Hill’s only release has been “MTV Unplugged No. 2.0,” a project no one ever said was pleasing.
Fans waited patiently for a proper new album from Hill with nothing in sight. (Frank Ocean fans thought they had it bad.)
Instead, she fell into anti-superstar mode, said to have been disillusioned by her immense fame that included Grammy Awards and blockbuster sales.
In the years following the album, she has been sued over “Miseducation” writing credits, jailed for tax evasion and toured on the strength of her one great album.
For many, not only is that lack of new material a problem, but so is the way she handles classic “Miseducation” songs. Much to many fans’ chagrin, she twists and turns “Miseducation” songs into unrecognizable structures, making her concerts a challenge.
Why? There has been buzz, not proven true, that she can’t perform “Miseducation” songs as recorded because she sold the rights to do so while in a financial pinch.
Before abandoning the original versions of her songs, for whatever reason, Hill could’ve first embarked on a “Miseducation” farewell tour in which she performed the album in its entirety as fans remember it. But not everyone agrees with that idea.
In an essay on Medium.com , rapper Talib Kweli stepped up to defend Hill’s shows:
“When you pay for a Lauryn Hill concert, you are not paying for her to do what you want; you are paying for her to do what she wants. She 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. Get over yourself. If you have a negative experience at her concert, go home, put on ‘The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill,’ and the next time she does come through your town, don’t go to her concert. Problem solved"
Fair enough.
For her most daring fans, her drastic rearrangements have actually offered something special and adventurous.
In my 2014 review of her concert at the Pageant, I wrote that her show was “artistic expression at its finest” and that her hits were “unfamiliar yet just as dynamic. These new versions ... were the musical equivalent of a thrill ride in concert. Hill picked apart songs ... and gave them new reasons for being"
But waiting for fans to warm up to her concerts is nothing compared to a bigger problem. She has a terrible reputation for showing up unreasonably late. We’re talking hours. For her 2011 concert at the Pageant, she didn’t take the stage until just before midnight, though she did much better with her 2014 visit.
Her chronic lateness hit an apex this year with a May concert in Atlanta’s Chastain Park. The show drew national attention when it was cut short so the venue could meet its curfew. A viral clip showed Hill arguing with an angry fan, and she’s seen blaming her driver for getting lost.
Since Atlanta, Hill took to social media to explain her tardiness, which had to do with “aligning my energy with the time” before performing, an unpopular excuse.
She wrote, in part: “I don’t have an on/off switch. I am at my best when I am open, rested, sensitive and liberated to express myself as truthfully as possible. For every performance that I’ve arrived to late, there have been countless others where I’ve performed in excess of two hours, beyond what I am contracted to do, pouring everything out on the stage.”
Then there’s the Grammy performance that didn’t happen in February with the Weeknd. She showed up for rehearsal but not the live broadcast. She said the Grammys promoted her appearance without her approval; she’d later perform with the Weeknd on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.”
This brings us back to LouFest.
I’ve been asked often what I think of the booking. I love it. It’s a great fit for the festival. Her concert reviews this year have been strong (here and here)as she embarks on her “MLH Caravan: A Diaspora Calling! Concert Series,” and I believe her show will happen — and happen on time — solely based on the festival’s excellent track record. I don’t think organizers are looking for headlines like those that came out of Atlanta, and they’ll do everything possible to avoid them.
We hope Hill has already started to align her energy for Sunday’s show.
What Ms. Lauryn Hill at LouFest •
When 7 p.m. Sunday • Where Forest Park Stage, Central Fields in Forest Park • How much $60 single-day passes, $95 two-day passes; VIP available • More info loufest.com
No comments:
Post a Comment