Lauryn Hill Explains Why She Left The Music Industry

Lauryn Hill has a really long message for you. Especially, if you are considering entering the music game. You might not be about that life. It’s a very cruel world.
Back in 1999, Lauryn Hill was on her way to being the next big thing. She was winning every award imaginable (including 5 Grammys –and the first Hip Hop record to be named ‘Album Of The Year’), was on magazine covers and was hounded with movie offers after her successful performance in ‘Sister Act 2′. But shortly afterward, she disappeared from the scene and left her fans wondering if they would ever get a follow up to her classic, ‘The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill’.

In the past few years, Lauryn has returned to the stage in an effort to continue to support her family while reconnecting with her fans, however earlier this week, she found herself in a little jam when it was reported that she could be facing jail time for not paying taxes in 2005, 2006 and 2007. Now, in a lengthy blog that Lauryn posted to her tumblr, she explains why she not only took a break from the ‘dangerous music industry’ but detailed how she removed herself from society and the machine to create a non toxic, non-exploitative environment for her family.

Read in it’s entirety below:

“For the past several years, I have remained what others would consider underground. I did this in order to build a community of people, like-minded in their desire for freedom and the right to pursue their goals and lives without being manipulated and controlled by a media protected military industrial complex with a completely different agenda. Having put the lives and needs of other people before my own for multiple years, and having made hundreds of millions of dollars for certain institutions, under complex and sometimes severe circumstances, I began to require growth and more equitable treatment, but was met with resistance. I entered into my craft full of optimism (which I still possess), but immediately saw the suppressive force with which the system attempts to maintain it’s control over a given paradigm. I’ve seen people promote addiction, use sabotage, black listing, media bullying and any other coercion technique they could, to prevent artists from knowing their true value, or exercising their full power. These devices of control, no matter how well intentioned (or not), can have a devastating outcome on the lives of people, especially creative types who must grow and exist within a certain environment and according to a certain pace, in order to live and create optimally.

I kept my life relatively simple, even after huge successes, but it became increasingly obvious that certain indulgences and privileges were expected to come at the expense of my free soul, free mind, and therefore my health and integrity. So I left a more mainstream and public life, in order to wean both myself, and my family, away from a lifestyle that required distortion and compromise as a means for maintaining it. During this critical healing time, there were very few people accessible to me who had not already been seduced or affected by this machine, and therefore who could be trusted to not try and influence or coerce me back into a dynamic of compromise. Individual growth was expected to take place unnaturally, or stagnated outright, subject to marketing and politics. Addressing critical issues like pop culture cannibalism or its manipulation of the young at the expense of everything, was frowned upon and discouraged by limiting funding, or denying it outright. When one has a prolific creative output like I did/do, and is then forced to stop, the effects can be dangerous both emotionally and psychologically, both for the artist and those in need of that resource. It was critically important that I find a suitable pathway within which to exist, without being distorted or economically strong-armed.

During this period of crisis, much was said about me, both slanted and inaccurate, by those who had become dependent on my creative force, yet unwilling to fully acknowledge the importance of my contribution, nor compensate

Source

Facebook Blogger Plugin by JustNaira.com | Get Widget