Lauryn Hill has addressed the “misconceptions” about her history of lateness after her Essence Festival “slip-up”.
The Fugees singer played to a largely empty stadium just days ago (July 5) when delays meant Hill arrived at Caesar’s Superdome in New Orleans hours after she was scheduled to appear. The festival later accepted responsibility, writing the reason for the delay was “not hers”.
Now, Hill has posted her own statement, thanking the festival for “clarifying that the delays were not my fault”. She went on to say that she was “involved in every aspect of design, preparation and production of my shows while also being a parent, grandparent and steward to my immediate family and community”.
She added: “There seems to be a misconception out there though that I am somewhere on the Riviera with my feet up, drink in hand, showing up to concerts whenever because I’m too important to care. That’s nonsense… and anyone who’s been a part of these productions knows that IN FACT the opposite is true.”
“This is not the first time production delays have delayed my performances,” Hill then wrote. “This IS however the first time a promoter has acknowledged the slip up on their end, (thank you Essence!) and this will be the last time I’ll allow production challenges to look like the fault is mine alone, when they aren’t.”
Hill continued saying she was “okay” with those who “can no longer extend me grace”, as “it’s God’s grace that sustains me and the love of the fans who appreciate that my message came for them when they needed it most and KNOW that I was probably punished for being so honest in the midst of big business.”
The statement concludes: “Media, fact check and watch what you irresponsibly put out there — there are consequences for misrepresenting the facts. Despite the late start, I appreciate those who stayed and rocked with us.” Read the full statement above.
Hill has been playing shows recently, teaming up fellow Fugees member Wyclef Jean in a performance at Roberta Flack’s memorial in March.
Flack, whose song ‘Killing Me Softly With His Song’ the Fugees covered in their own hit song, passed away on February 24. At the memorial, Hill and Jean performed ‘Killing Me Softly’, as well as Flack’s 1969 hit ‘The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face’.
Prior to their performance, Hill gave a speech honouring the late singer, saying (via Billboard): “Like Nina Simone, she carved out for me a pathway of soulful Black intellectual sublime beauty that not only spoke to Black resistance directly in lyric and statement, but was Black resistance to racism, bigotry and limitations by virtue of its existence.
“She didn’t just write about the beauty; she was the beauty. She didn’t just write about resistance; her existence was a form of resistance. She wrote our stories in forms the established authorities of the time could not deny; compositions wrapped with graceful classical forms and nuances that would not nor could not be dismissed.”
Elsewhere, watch Doechii join Lauryn Hill in Miami for ‘Doo Wop (That Thing)’.