Daiana Feuer on September 19th, 2018

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The wait for Ms. Lauryn Hill to take the stage in her deconstructed prom dress and letterman’s jacket was as stressful as expected. This includes the almost two hour commute just to reach the Hollywood Bowl during rush hour, and the hour between Dave Chappelle’s comedic appearance and the moment the DJ — a happy woman in a hat who danced her way through an upbeat set of throwback R&B, house and even a lil’ Nirvana — finally announced Ms. Hill would begin, around 9:45 p.m. (and the Bowl’s curfew is 11). During the break, people could get their cell phones unlocked from the little bags they had to stow them in during Chappelle’s set. This was tough for people, who soon clustered as sardines or cattle do into a hot, tight, immovable mess of bodies squeezing through the sidelines to free their phones before the main event.

So Ms. Lauryn Hill was late, or perhaps right on time, who knows. Complaints abound about her tardy tendencies and idiosyncratic persona. Yeah, she was late. Yeah, she fidgeted the whole time with her monitor situation, pulling on her in-ears, gesticulating towards the on-stage monitor engineer to fix the sound up and down, up and down. Yeah, her performance was punctuated by a dance of exasperated gestures at her band to read and respond to commands. It was easy to get caught up in her conductor stress. It seemed like she had this ever-unfolding, unattainable vision in her mind, constantly rearranging her songs even in the moment they were occurring. Is this hard on the band? Probably. In fact, my Uber driver home — who, since the world turns in ridiculous coincidences, actually produced a song for Hill in 2010— said she’s always been that way.

On a related swivel, last month jazz musician Robert Glasper went on 97.9 FM and made some harsh statements about playing with her, mistreatment of band members, cutting pay and taking credit for an album she didn’t create, that being “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill” (c’mon now!). He admonished that she had the gall to ask him to audition, said he’d basically rather eat a beef patty than work with someone like her, but then added, “oh yeah, and we did another album recently, too.” Why would you keep working with someone that you thought was a crazy song-stealer? His words got Hill riled up. Having declined interviews for the last 10 years, she took to Medium.com and published her own response.

The facts and allegations are unpleasant, but not criminal, and music history literally overflows with people who receive endless praise for their art and were/are duplicitous and MUCH worse. So whatever, Lauryn Hill is who she is. The idea that very talented people contributed to one of the greatest albums of the 1990s does not come as a surprise. The whole list of people is online. The fact remains that the heart, soul, motivation and voice of it all is still the misunderstood and miseducated Ms. Lauryn Hill.

The Hollywood Bowl performance included 10 tracks and some interludes from her seminal neo-soul record, each appearing in new musical arrangements that re-interpreted and gave flight to the original melodies. Her band included keys, guitar, bass, drums, a horn player and three back-up singers who played in front of a large screen that varied colorful shapes and images of the stage with footage from the news, friends and family. The set, which opened ecstatically with “Lost Ones” and “Everything Is Everything,” highlighted the range of Hill’s vocals and attitude, from gruff, intense rap to gospel-like runs of pretty notes. A montage of police brutality during an extended exploration of “Forgive Them Father” made an impact, as Hill turned the lyrics into a mantra of pain and hope. This moment connected to a heartfelt plea in the middle of “Final Hour” where Hill begged the audience to be part of the change they want to see in the world, take stock in ourselves, and make sure that whatever we’re chasing doesn’t distort us to the extent we become part of the problem. She asked the audience to make sure that we’re on the right side of history because the world needs people with integrity to set the standard. As she said this, she cupped her little black sweat towel in one outstretched hand, closed her eyes and with her other hand pointed at it and stirred it like it was a bible or very small vortex that contained all the meaning she wanted to convey.

Celebrating the album’s 20th anniversary, she reached back into her experiences for “Superstar,” “Ex Factor” and “When It Hurts So Bad,” songs that captured what she was going through at the time the album came out, and conveyed coming of age with a mix of vulnerability and coolness that touched every girl looking for guidance on what it meant to become a woman. Pain, honesty, sensuality, strength and self-reliance were the lessons. The screams of joy and rapture that emanated from every person in the Bowl during “That Thing” and “Can’t Take My Eyes Off Of You” rekindled memories of singing these into the mirror just hoping that love would one day look and feel like these songs.