Lauryn Hill.
001: on substack pressure and cultivating experiences (+ january writing prompts)
1.
Lauryn Hill has been with me my whole life.
From driving with my mom while listening to her former Hip-Hop/Rap group ‘The Fugees’’s second album, to listening ‘The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill’ while getting ready to drink the last Vodka Sprite of 2024. Her angel like voice and her meaningful lyrics have been a part of my life for as long as I can remember.
I only listened to her songs, I never really knew much about Lauryn or about her personal life, until now - January 1st 2025.
I spent the whole day searching and researching about many aspects of her life: The success, her relationship with Rohan Marley, the cult(?) period in her life, but I’m not here to talk about any of these things in detail.
Let me just say this: Lauryn Hill has an angel like voice, and she’s a god like figure.
One thing she said in particular made me realize this. And it made me get the inspiration to write this to you, because I’ve seen people worrying about this topic on Substack lately.
On this ACADEMY CLASS OF 2000 interview, Lauryn was asked about the way that she copes with commercial pressure. That being, the pressure to produce more and more as an artist, to fulfill people’s needs, or to make people not forget about her.
Here’s what she said:
I think that what I've consciously decided to do is be patient and wait for those instructions again [instructions from God]. As opposed to the instructions from the record company. Unfortunately, I can't fulfill their needs because it's devoid of all feeling. I never want to condescend.
There are a lot of people who condescend to the audience. They just think, oh, they like anything. Just throw a beat on it and put your voice on it. But if it doesn't move me, then I don't think it's worthy enough to put out there and move someone else. It has to be something that I need personally. That's my barometer for whether or not it's good for the people. Not anything, just, you know, just make a beat, it's hot, throw it out there.
I personally don't feel the pressure. The pressure is out there. Yeah, but I don't feel it. I really, really don't. You know, it does exist. I see people, “hey, when's that record company coming? You know, you can't leave us hanging like that.” “We need something else or the record company. The window of opportunity is almost closed.”But I just don't think that those rules apply to me. And not because of me, but I just think that it's something spiritual and something bigger. And I think that... if you respond to the needs of the people, you know, that's timeless. There is not a window of opportunity for people's needs.
This just proves to me that Lauryn is a TRUE artist.
A true artist (whichever kind) to me is someone who really cares about the art they’re making, rather than attention from the press or financial compensation. If more people were more like Lauryn, we wouldn’t be bombarded with content as shallow as a puddle.
Lately, I’ve been noticing a drop on the audience of my long form content, and I won’t take any more of your time talking about it, and as much as it feels very upsetting, my discouragement with Substack is surprisingly fading away. This drop helped me separate my true audience from the brain rot/rage bait people.
If a piece (or an essay) takes two months to be completed, than it takes two months to be completed. You’re taking your time, choosing the right words, doing your research. A significant piece of work is in the making, and as much as that little voice in your head tries to tell you that people won’t actually wait for you, I’m here saying that they will. Good content is in decline, and the right audience will appreciate all the time and all the effort.
I’ve been finding comfort on my favorite creators here. Their work shines amongst the half baked thoughts and the half assed two cents people give on trendy subjects so that they don’t “lose” their audience. I always can tell when people write a post that they really didn’t enjoy writing. That will make you lose an audience, if anything.
Take good care of your work, spend as much time as you need on it, have a better understanding of the fact that you’re doing the best that you can with what you have and then, only then, you’ll have a legacy you’ll be proud of.
Take the ‘If I disappear, people will forget about me’ myth out of your head. Good, original work is never forgotten. You’re not going to die because of it, and you’re not going to disappear. You’ll just get better.