She was not scheduled to be a surprise guest on Nicki Minaj’s set at the Hot 97 Summer Jam. Rumors swirled that Lauryn Hill and Nas were supposed to come out while Nicki was onstage, but Nicki pulled out of the event after Nicki and her boss, Lil Wayne, took offense to Peter Rosenberg, of Hot 97’s morning show, dissing Nicki’s attempt at pop music on her last album.
That’s a sore spot for Nicki because she thought she was a crossover star, but her album sales were flat when the pop world (read: Caucasians) didn’t embrace her new music.
Despite Nicki’s departure, the show went on with Lauryn and Nas performing without Nicki.
In a statement on her official twitter account, Ms. Lauryn tweeted:
No disrespect to Nicki, but I need to clear up an inaccuracy. I was not scheduled to be a special guest on her set at Summer Jam, I was invited by Nas to perform with him. I don’t have details on exactly what transpired between the station and the artists, but I do support artists standing by their beliefs, and walking with integrity. We have to find a better way to commercially exploit music, while giving artists their proper respect. This cannot be done while taking their contributions for granted, or trying to control the scope of their growth and power through threats and fear tactics. We can do better than this, there is a better way, or else ‘we’ (the proverbial we) find ourselves in danger of being hypocrites!!!
Ms. Lauryn Hill
