CWW: Lauryn Hill

Lauryn Hill

Born May 25^th 1975 –

South Orange, NJ

Singer-song writer, producer, actress

The Fugees 1991-1996

Hill’s started converting her poetry into rap verses and soon after started a hip-hop group called the Fugees with a high school friend Prakazrel Michel and his cousin Wyclef Jean. One of their successful songs was “Killing Me Softly with His Song.” They later made other popular songs like “Ready or Not,” and “No Woman, No Cry.”

Solo Career

Lauryn Hill was the first woman to be nominated in 10 categories in a single year and the first women to win 5 times in a night at the 1999 Grammys. In 1998 she released her album The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill which was inspired by The Miseducation of the Negro by Carter G. Woodson. In this album, she wrote about things concerning her while she was in The Fugees. “I Used to Love Him,” came from her break up with Wyclef Jean and “To Zion” was about her decision to have her first child: everyone kept bugging her to get an abortion because a child would interrupt her music career.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwJ3u2wk0Ko

TO ZION

Unsure of what the balance held
I touched my belly overwhelmed
By what I had been chosen to perform
But then an angel came one day
Told me to kneel down and pray
For unto me a man child would be born
Woe this crazy circumstance
I knew his life deserved a chance
But everybody told me to be smart
Look at your career they said,
"Lauryn, baby use your head"
But instead I chose to use my heart

Now the joy of my world is in Zion
Now the joy of my world is in Zion

How beautiful if nothing more
Than to wait at Zion's door
I've never been in love like this before
Now let me pray to keep you from
The perils that will surely come
See life for you my prince has just begun
And I thank you for choosing me
To come through into life to be
A beautiful reflection of his grace
For I know that a gift so great
Is only one God could create
And I'm reminded every time I see your face

That the joy of my world is in Zion
Now the joy of my world is in Zion
Now the joy of my world is in Zion
Now the joy of my world is in Zion

Marching, marching, marching to Zion
Marching, marching
Marching, marching, marching to Zion
Beautiful, beautiful Zion

The lyrics of this song are mostly straight forward in telling her story. I think this song is a perfect example in showing of how much a poet Lauryn was before her music career began.

Hill’s “To Zion” relates to the book, in the beginning of Section II “Writing Bodies/Bodies Writing,” (pg. 375): Women must use their bodies as a source of empowerment by making her own decision with her body. In Hill’s case, she didn’t want to choose abortion; she wanted to create a new life.

Because this piece is about Lauryn’s body and mind, I think this also shares a theme with Audre Lorde’s eroticism piece. Hill’s empowering energy combines her mixture of physical and emotional being in “To Zion” as well as a lot of her other songs.