On the classic album The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, Lauryn raps a line where she says, "all I ever wanted / was to sell like five hundred / and be a ghetto superstar / since my first album blunted". What she means is that all she wanted was to sell gold (500,000 copies) since the first Fugess album put in in 1993 or 94 titled "Blunted on Reality".
As a DJ and someone who grew up in the music, I understood exactly what she meant. There is something about the combinantion of being able to express yourself and that people showing you that 'love and admiration' (being a star in the Hip Hop world, not neccessarily a household name). Something about the right combination of swagger, a free personality, skills on stage...something about the right words said in the right way at the right time over the right beat.
And selling gold, I always understood what she meant. Being able to take care of yourself and your family doing what you love. Enough sales to live off of it, to tour and to be loved by the people that you are doing the music for - the people that you are thinking of when you are writing or recording.
I am writing this because I was doing some research for an article and I came across this clip of The Fugees performing at the Appollo Theatre. Watch what happens in the faces of the crowd when Lauryn starts to freestyle compared to the crowd only moments before when she was performing a pretty big song.
Click on this link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jO3h9NDMuV8&mode=related&search=
And for good measure, watch this other link and see the heart and passion that Mary J. Blige sings with at the end of this clip - her voice drives and reaches deeply into my heart.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mmx297xym0U&mode=related&search=
Inspiration.
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