Lauryn Hill performing at the Harmony Festival in SF.

Mikey: In a recent and extremely rare interview, Zoe Chace of NPR, tracked down Ms. Hill after her performance at this year’s Harmony Festival in San Fransisco. As a part of NPR’s 50 Greatest Voices interview series, Zoe and Ms. Hill talk candidly on her absence from the music scene and her recent return to performing.

Listen: NPR’s All Things Considered Radio Show feat. Lauryn Hill

Zoe Chace: I ask her the question her fans have been asking each other for years: Why did you stop putting out music?

“There were a number of different reasons,” she says. ”But partly, the support system that I needed was not necessarily in place. There were things about myself, personal-growth things, that I had to go through in order to feel like it was worth it. In fact, as musicians and artists, it’s important we have an environment — and I guess when I say environment, I really mean the [music] industry, that really nurtures these gifts. Oftentimes, the machine can overlook the need to take care of the people who produce the sounds that have a lot to do with the health and well-being of society, or at least some aspect of society. And it’s important that people be given the time that they need to go through, to grow, so that the consciousness level of the general public is properly affected.  Oftentimes, I think people are forced to make decisions prematurely. And then that sound radiates.” - Lauryn Hill (From The Many Voices of Lauryn Hill)

(More clips after the jump)

Lauryn on being a singer and rapper

Lauryn on Bob Marley

Lauryn on her creative experience.