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Lauryn Hill music biography continued...

at an amateur contest at Harlem's Apollo Theater at age thirteen. Soon after, she met Prakazrel "Pras" Michel and his cousin, Wyclef Jean, and the three formed a band (which was at first called Tranzlator Crew, but later became the Fugees) and began performing in area clubs. The group debuted in 1993, but their second album, 1996's The Score, went on to sell 17 million copes, making the Fugees the largest-selling rap group of all time and winning them two Grammy Awards (Best Rap Album and Best R&B Performance by a duo or group). Hill's first solo effort, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill (1998), established her as a major talent in her own right. The album sold over 12 million copies and earned Hill five Grammy Awards, three American Music Awards, a Billboard Award, a Soul Train Award and an MTV Music Award. Speaking about the album, Hill said: "It's really about the things that you've learned outside of school, outside of what society deems appropriate and mandatory. I have a lot of respect for academia... But there was a lot that I had to learn life lessons that weren't part of any scholastic curriculum. It's really our passage into adulthood when we leave that place of idealism and naiveté."



In 2001, Hill returned with some highly-anticipated new material, which she played to a small crowd during a taping of an MTV Unplugged special. The 2002 released MTV Unplugged No. 2.0 album exhibited a new Hill, as she focused on the lyrics and the message she was spreading rather than the musical arrangements, but fans ate it up nevertheless sending it Platinum. Afterward, Hill returned to the Fugees who engaged in a short-lived comeback playing engagements in the US and abroad and releasing a few songs on the Internet before splitting apart again. Despite her penchant for getting into controversies, industry insiders say that Hill is busy writing songs and is eager to stage a comeback. Her fans are waiting on the edge of their seats.