In a rare moment of vulnerability, Lauryn Hill has taken a very private and personal matter to Facebook. Not long after Selah Marley, Hill’s daughter with music royalty Rohan Marley, released an Instagram video detailing the trauma she endured growing up, the ex-Fugee is addressing Selah’s accusations in a lengthy post.
On Thursday (August 13), Hill eloquently defended her daughter’s right to process her childhood experience in whatever way she sees fit. She also explained why she felt the need to discipline her children in the way she did, which according to Selah was anything but gentle.
“Uhhhh black people, what???” she began. “Selah has every right to express herself, I encourage it, but she also got the discipline that black children get because we are held to a different standard. The discipline was seen through the lens of a young child who also had no place to reconcile me as mom, and me as a larger than life public figure. It took me a while to realize that my children, and probably everyone who knew me saw me in this duality. To me, I am just me. If I am guilty of anything it is disciplining in anger, not in disciplining.
“The toxic venom I ingested for standing on principle, and confronting systemic racism far BEFORE it was the thing to say or do (everything you NOW celebrate everyone for!)–the people who called me CRAZY and have yet to apologize and say ‘oh yeah, we were wrong’, OF COURSE that seeped into my home, it was intended to. An entire operation trying to break an artist with a voice and knowledge of herself–way ahead of her time–was in motion. I was affected, my family was affected, my children were affected.”
From there, Hill expounded on what it was like enduring the often bitter elements of fame and how she felt sheltering her children and keeping them quiet was a better alternative to having them thrust in the limelight.
“I discussed with Selah what it must have been like having a child while being hunted by nazis, or what it was like for the children of runaway slaves,” she continued. “The child just being a child puts her and everyone else’s lives in jeopardy. Keeping the child quiet to escape the danger is ALSO saving the child’s life! Imagine that. When I realized that the pressure on me was so incredibly hypocritical and unfair, criminal even, that even my children weren’t allowed to be children, I stepped away. I wasn’t removed, I STEPPED AWAY.
“Weening myself and my family from the addictions that systems of control attempt to use through fame and celebrity is no joke. It’s painful and people were not above using my children to keep exploiting me. Keeping a child sober minded in the midst of everyone trying to seduce and bribe and coerce is an incredibly challenging thing to do. Sell a few million copies of a recording and see the wolves and sharks for yourself before you determine what’s appropriate and what’s not. The danger was REAL! And this danger I faced alone, unsupported as I should have been, and dumped on by the same people who only a few years before built a fortune off the same gifts they later tried to deny and then COPY.”
Hill also warned against the hypocrisy she was witnessing on social media in the wake of Selah’s video.
“My life has been about protecting my children from all kinds of danger, and that’s only possible when you protect yourself from the danger as well,” she wrote. “Selah is on a road to healing and contextualizing her childhood, and is allowed her process, but if you come for me, come for your own mama, and those absent fathers–come for them too, your grandparents, your great grand parents, your great great grand parents, your great great great grand parents, Caribbean parents, African parents and everyone else damaged and judged for being black and forced to conform and assimilate to western standards of ‘order’ shaped through the filter and lens of anti-blackness.”
She added, “As my children mature they see the state of the world, before that, ALL they saw was me seemingly blocking the fun, not me aggressively blocking the trap.
Selah and I speak often and she knows we are both working through our stuff–the exploitation, the abandonment, the mistreatment and the muzzling of our own gifts and intelligence to make it more comfortable for others, which is a big mistake to do, it can ONLY lead to implosion or explosion.
Lauryn Hill Apologizes For Being Lauryn Hill — Again
“We’re both learning and healing, and each of my children has a similar story and journey. All of you in a rush to crucify someone, careful who you string up or nail up. You might have an extremely limited view of the actual reality. We all hate abuse and exploitation, sometimes in an effort to fight against it we can easily become the abuser, the exploiter, and THIS is what we have to watch for. No one is exempt from needing to watch themselves in this way.”
As Hill concluded her diatribe, she made it clear she was tired of the way the industry is run.
“If you’re one of these people under the illusion that money somehow simplifies life and solves all problems, look at the examples of Amy Winehouse, Whitney Houston AND Bobbi Kristina Brown, Prince, Michael Jackson, Sam Cooke, Kurt Cobain, Marvin Gaye, Biggie Smalls, Tupac Shakur, Nipsey Hussle, Juiceworld, Pop Smoke, Lil Peep, I could go on,” she said. “Sometimes fame and money amplify not only problems but can magnify the darkest and most cruel and selfish qualities in humans. Greed, jealousy, envy, covetousness, violence, fear. People see someone who they think is powerful or has something they want and scan for the slightest vulnerability to exploit.
Finally, she posed the question, “Could you imagine what the world would look like if someone said ‘hey, this or that artist has an addiction problem, or this one is being taken advantage of, how can we help?’ rather than turning it into news. I wonder who’d still be here today?”
In Selah’s nearly two-hour Instagram Live, the 21-year-old talked about life with her “very angry” mom whom she claims disciplined her by whipping her with belts, calling it “some slave owner shit.” She also spoke of her father Rohan as being a largely absent dad, which prompted a public apology from him.
Check out a clip of Selah’s video below and find Hill’s full post above.
Personally, kids nowadays need more discipline, bottomline. Discipline though, not abuse. I wasn’t in their house just like nobody else was, but I’ve witnessed both discipline and abuse, they ain’t the same, although a lot of people enjoy mixing them up interchangeably…
She was angry at racism she endured, so she took it out in anger on her children.
Horrible. What I do respect is her taking responsibility though.
She needs to make hip hop again.
And that baby father gets Lauren Hill Pregnant – someone great men would have died for – but he ends up being an absent father. Saying sorry years later. How about someone uppercut him. Spit on him, then they can say sorry to each other?
Smh.
Celebs. Wealthy celebs living in abuse. What a joke. Think of the familial abuse happening in Chicago now. Ppl need to heal.
Bless.
How white celebrities kids commit suicide
“You might have an extremely limited view of the actual reality. We all hate abuse and exploitation, sometimes in an effort to fight against it we can easily become the abuser, the exploiter, and THIS is what we have to watch for. No one is exempt from needing to watch themselves in this way.”
Yeah, Ms. Hill, please tell that to the mob in BLM. Stop blaming the wrong people and stop burning and looting.
And in return could you tell the white, racist cop mob to stop killing unarmed black men, women, and CHILDREN? ALSO…please heed your own advice, and “stop blaming the wrong people”. BLM didn’t start police brutality…racism, or an unjust criminal system. They are in response to that.
And what response is there for other than Black lives? Is everyone so deaf, dumb, and blind that they’re unaware of cops wrongly treating and racism against anyone other than Blacks? What about when the system abuses Whites or Hispanics, Asians? Do their lives NOT matter? Or is it only the Black lives that matter? And, why are black people still trying to lay blame over something that happened so long ago? Man, slavery been dead. Ain’t nobody around that’s got any recent relationships with slaves. Smdh, seems to me that Blacks just want to cry, “Oh, poor me. I got in trouble or someone doesn’t like me so it must be bc I’m black. Never are they in trouble bc of their own actions, never does so and so not like them bc they’re dicks or crybabies. Y’all need to stop bc ALL lives matter.
Anddd the bullshit appears… nobodys saying nonblacks arent affected by police violence. What we are saying is the lack on conviction and sentencing for officers who shoot unarmed black people is nonexistent! There’s no consequence- AND THAT IS THE PROBLEM! Also, you apparently don’t know the meaning of ALL because it means everyone- including black people. Nobodys shooting white people and going home at the end of the day…You don’t identify with the black plight so take your woe is me attitude elsewhere
One of the absolute biggest pieces of shit in the world.
Disciplined or abused ? Sounds like abuse to me. 5 kids with a man that was not around? Now thats dumb ./ Then you take your anger on to the kids ? NO . And please don’t justify that shit you did with more made up shit geeeeeezzzzz !
Bet she won’t commit suicide like y’all
She should though and you to for generalizing , idiot. Black people commit suicide every year.
The girl turned out fine. Lauryn Hill is a piece of trash but her response to her daughters ass whooping provides me the necessary insight to give her a pass.
Lauryn Hill is racist as hell though, she hate white people so much it’s astonishing really
So what they been hating us forever
She gave me goosebumps man. She is right! Smack those little sh!t kids do it
At the end of the day, she just seems like an arrogant person. Showing up late for her own concerts and then going on some stoner philosophical rant about herself after being accused of abuse essentially. Her music just came across as she’s not that type of person. It helps there was no twitter back then too.
Whenever u work to protect yourself from the world you are usually perceived as arrogant, eccentric,crazy etc
Gtfoh you got a regular ass whoopin!! Kids these days need more of them
You are so rest…Normal ass beating..and much needed these days..That’s why so many are messed up due to the lack of displine ?
I got those ass whooping and I can say I dont have one felony nor a misdemeanor. The question is was the whoopings warranted? I know mines was. Nobody’s perfect. Nobody can tell me their parents didn’t do or say some fuck up ass shit out of anger. If you do you are a liar period! Just because she’s a public figure she being nailed to the cross. The young lady turn out fine and even said her mom got her shit together. I dont think she took her anger out on her kids I think because she was angry her tolerance was thin.
It’s sad how we feel artists are obligated to share their gifts with us. They choose to and they have to lose their whole lives for it. We take them. They become each of ours individually and we expect them all to be above simple humanity. Smh. I’d NEVER want to b famous.
Sorry i was actually trying to reply to that douchebag Speakeasy down below who was crying that all lives matter BS