Lauryn Hill Dazzles
Lauryn Hill Stuns & Dazzles New York Fans At Free Concert....
Former Fugees star Lauryn Hill thrilled fans in Brooklyn, New York on Monday night (06Aug07) when she performed a free concert in Crown Heights.Wearing heavy make-up, the Ready Or Not singer took the stage at a packed Wingate Field with an 11-piece band in front of a crowd of thousands.She ran through her solo hits, giving many of them a reggae and ska twist, rapping more than singing.Hill kept the reggae feel going with a rendition of Lost Ones, which ran into a version of Bob Marley's Natty Dread. Later in her set she also sampled reggae great Peter Tosh's Downpressor Man and Marley's Iron, Lion, Zion.But fans and critics alike were left more than a little bemused when Hill babbled, "I just took your word for it, baby, I just took your word for it" over and over again after introducing Ex-Factor.Rolling Stone magazine reports, "Sometimes it sounded beautiful, sometimes it sounded like babble. Each song - upbeat, percussive bass lines beneath Hill's rough, repetitive chanting was at least 10 minutes long. The crowd sat in a collective stare, not quite sure what to make of it."The free concert came after Hill was harshly criticised for poor performances and late arrivals at a handful of European shows.She eventually won the crowd over with a beautiful rendition of Roberta Flack's The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face, before launching into a medley of ska versions of Fugees hits like How Many Mics and Fu-Gee-La.
The extraordinary Hill then ended the show with '90s superhit Killing Me Softly, a version of the Shirelle's Will You Love Me Tomorrow and she left the stage after performing solo hit Doo Wop (That Thing).
Tagged in The Fugees