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Just a few years ago, Lauryn Hill seemed to have it all. But if it's true that money can't buy happiness, then it's doubly true for Hill.
Instead of relishing the success of The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill — her multimillion-selling, Grammy Award-winning solo debut — Hill, 26, felt trapped by it. She dropped out of sight for nearly two years to study the Bible with a spiritual advisor and re-emerged in late July to tape an emotional episode of MTV's "Unplugged," where she debuted some of her new material.
MTV News' Sway talked to Hill after the taping and got the lowdown on her new outlook, the difficult changes she's made and whether there's a Fugees reunion in her future.
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Sway: Your episode of "Unplugged" was one of the most honest performances I've ever seen. I met you years ago in San Francisco ...
Hill: Now you are meeting another Lauryn, so it's good to be reintroduced.
Sway: What are some of the differences between the old Lauryn and the Lauryn sitting in front of me now?
Hill: I think the Lauryn Hill of then was looking to be validated, was hoping to be accepted. She was looking for acknowledgment from everybody except the one who made me. At this point, the things I am led to do are things that I know He wants me to do. ... I have inner peace after having done them. It's a different person. Just like everyone else, I wanted to be loved and be liked. So, a lot of my behavior was patterned to be acceptable to whatever the socially acceptable thing at the moment was. [RealVideo]
Sway: Give me an example of that.
Hill: It's everything from the time that you are a child. You grow up [learning] how to repress yourself. From the first time someone says, "Who do you think you are?" Or, "She is conceited." Things like that. We just learn how to repress and repress until we become a totally different person. Now I am just beginning to be more comfortable with my identity.
Honesty is the only policy, the man who changed Lauryn's life and no more faking it ... NEXT >>>
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