Multi-Award Winning Artist Robert Glasper Has A Message For Lauryn Hill: “The One Thing You Did Great, You Didn’t Do”

Robert Glasper is a multi talented, Grammy and Emmy award winning artist who has worked with the best of the best, ranging from Stevie Wonder, Quincy Jones, Herbie Hancock, Jill Scott, and more. Glasper sat down for a radio interview with 97.9 The Box in Houston for the “MADD HATTA Morning Show.”

During the interview, Glasper was asked about his career, and asked how does he deal with people who are essentially assholes and have egos. Glasper begins by saying once he got signed in 2005, he wouldn’t work with/for artists that essentially didn’t do his spirit right, and he opened up about his experience with Lauryn Hill.

Glasper: I’ll say a name. You ready? Lauryn Hill.

Host: Why you do Lauryn Hill like that?

Glasper: No. Why she do me like that? I did a show with Lauryn…this was 2008, I guess. It was for Montblanc Jewelry Corporation. She’s getting half a million dollars for this show. It’s a 20 minute show. … So then my boy’s like, ‘Yo Lauryn has a show in New York, do you want to play?’ So I said, ‘What’s the deal?’ He’s like, ‘We’re rehearsing for one week for a 20 minute show.’ So we rehearse a whole week, like 10 hours a day. Every day she comes in and changes the show, changes what she wants to do. Completely.The last rehearsal, she doesn’t show up. Her manager comes in and says, ‘Lauryn’s not really feeling the way you guys have been learning the music so we’re going to cut your pay in half. The last rehearsal. The day before the show. First of all, we weren’t getting paid that much anyway but understand she’s getting half a million dollars. So seriously? You’re going to take these five musicians and cut their pay in half.

Host: Do you feel like y’all were messing up though?

Glasper: Not at all. It was a superband.
She has a thing of—she likes to fire bands. I can name you—I can rattle off 15 guys off the top of my head. She will go on tour with a band and in the city that they’re doing a show, she’ll hold auditions for her band…

Glasper goes into more details about Hill, saying that the rumors of Hill not wanting to be looked in the eyes, and demand certain aspects to be done her way or no way, etc. He also sheds light on why Hill only has one album, and why it may remain that way. Stating the she stole music.

Host: That’s why she rearranges the music on the tour, right?

Glasper: Yes! All kinds of stuff. I went into it knowing, ‘Okay, you steal music.’

Host: Who steals music?

Glasper: Lauryn Hill. I’ve met Stevie Wonder and hung out with Stevie Wonder. I’ve met Quincy Jones and hung out with Quincy Jones. I’ve met Herbie Hancock, hung out with Herbie Hancock. If those three people can be cool, Lauryn Hill should be able to be cool. You haven’t done enough to be the way you are. The one thing you did that was great, you didn’t do… I’m out here.

She took the credit for making the classic album. Those songs were written by other people and they did not get their credit. She likes to take credit so she can become this super person. If you’re a super person and you’re that talented…

Host: …Do it again.

Glasper: Do it! You feel me? She couldn’t tune her guitar in rehearsal. We were in rehearsal, she had my boy Benji tune her guitar.

Watch the full interview below. The Hill segment starts at the 27 minute mark.