Lauryn Hill is being released from prison today after serving three months for tax evasion, but before she gets out, she wanted to put this out. If you’re expecting old Lauryn Hill with fluid rhyming, pretty singing, and nice melody, you might want to pass on this one. A message on her Tumblr explains:
“‘Consumerism’ is a track coming out on the eve of Ms. Hill’s release. She wanted to get this music out while she was incarcerated, as it is a product of the space she was in while she was going through some of the challenges she has been faced with recently.
“Consumerism is part of some material I was trying to finish before I had to come in. We did our best to eek out a mix via verbal and emailed direction, thanks to the crew of surrogate ears on the other side. Letters From Exile is material written from a certain space, in a certain place. I felt the need to discuss the underlying socio-political, cultural paradigm as I saw it. I haven’t been able to watch the news too much recently, so I’m not hip on everything going on. But inspiration of this sort is a kind of news in and of itself, and often times contains an urgency that precedes what happens. I couldn’t imagine it not being relevant. Messages like these I imagine find their audience, or their audience finds them, like water seeking it’s level.”
– Ms. Lauryn Hill
