Robert Glasper doubles down on Lauryn Hill comments: "I don't regret the truth"
Robert Glasper spoke at a panel during the Mondo.NYC conference today (10/5), and during the audience Q&A portion at the end, he was asked if he regrets what he said about Lauryn Hill (he previously accused her of “stealing” music and mistreating band members). He replied, “I don’t regret the truth, not at all,” and continued, “I didn’t go to the radio station to talk about Lauryn. I went there to talk about something else and the interviewer asked me, ‘Hey Rob, you work with a lot of people, who did you love working with?’ and I named people I loved working with. And then he said, ‘Have you ever worked with anybody that was arrogant, that you didn’t like working with?’ I didn’t realize it was the 20th anniversary of Miseducation at the time, I had no idea! So I said ‘Yeah, Lauryn.'”
He then added, “My thing was Lauryn was back in 2008 or 2007 — I’ve never spoken about her in public. But everything I say is 100% true and it’s been going on for 20 years. And all of my friends are affected. A lot of people with kids are affected. So you have to separate yourself from being a fan and think what if it was your dad who wasn’t getting paychecks, you know what I mean? So my thing is just on a basic human level, I would never work with anybody that tells me ‘You can’t look at me.'”
He also said, “But, you know, I’m a musician that played for her and has a platform to say something that people will listen to. She’s been told this by everybody in person — her team and that kind of stuff. But I don’t regret it at all because at the end of the day I think it might shake something up and make her feel like she needs to do a little better.” You can watch a video of Robert’s full response below.
The panel took place at Williamsburg Hotel as part of the Mondo.NYC conference’s day of The Guild of Music Supervisors panels. Robert was joined by music supervisor Ed Gerrard, with whom he previously teamed for the Miles Davis biopic Miles Ahead and the Mr. Soul! documentary. Moderator Jonathan McHugh referred to them as “a team that’s just getting started,” and going by the discussion at this panel, it sounds like we can expect this pair to continue doing music for movies together (with Robert as composer and Ed as music supervisor). Robert talked a lot about his history and how he got into music and all the amazing people he’s worked with, and he talked about how writing songs for other people and movies is actually easier for him than writing his own music because he feels less pressure.
Robert also brought up that he’s in the midst of his residency at The Blue Note (which Yasiin Bey was just added to), and during the audience Q&A portion at the end, he was also asked about ways to get the traditional jazz world more integrated with the world of people who discovered jazz through hip hop. Before getting into how others cans do it, he basically pointed out that he is basically doing that, and gave examples of seeing younger kids at his shows who appreciate the old stuff as well as seeing older people who have come to appreciate the J Dilla type stuff, but he thinks getting a 20 year old that doesn’t study jazz to listen to jazz is like getting your grandmother to like Migos. He also mentioned that he’s working on another August Greene album, his new project with Common and Karriem Riggins.
Robert Glasper’s Blue Note residency continues tonight with 8 PM and 10:30 PM shows, both featuring Chris Dave and Derrick Hodge, and goes through the end of October (full schedule and tickets here).
Watch Robert discussing Lauryn Hill at Mondo.NYC:
