Lauryn Hill

At the 41st Grammy Awards, she set the record for the most nominations in one night for a female, and became the first rapper to win Album of the Year.

She has one older brother named Malaney who was born in 1972.

Her Baptist family moved to New York for a short period before settling in South Orange.

Hill has said of her musically oriented family: "there were so many records, so much music constantly being played. My mother played the piano, my father sang, and we were always surrounded by music."

Her father sang in local nightclubs and at weddings.

While growing up, Hill frequently listened to Curtis Mayfield, Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin, and Gladys Knight; years later she recalled playing Marvin Gaye's What's Going On repeatedly until she fell asleep to it.

In middle school, Hill performed "The Star-Spangled Banner" before a basketball game.

Due to its popularity, subsequent games featured a recording of her rendition.

Lauryn Noelle Hill (born May 26, 1975) is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, and record producer.

Hill is regarded as one of the greatest rappers of all time, as well as one of the most influential musicians of her generation.

She is often credited for breaking barriers for female rappers, popularizing melodic rap, and pioneering neo soul for mainstream audiences.

In addition to being named one of the 50 Great Voices by NPR, Hill was listed as one of the 200 Greatest Singers of All Time by Rolling Stone.

Lauryn Noelle Hill was born on May 26, 1975, in East Orange, New Jersey.

Her mother, Valerie Hill, was an English teacher and her father, Mal Hill, a computer and management consultant.

In 1988, Hill appeared as an Amateur Night contestant on It's Showtime at the Apollo.

She sang her version of the Smokey Robinson track "Who's Lovin' You", garnering an initially harsh reaction from the crowd.

She persevered through the performance.

Hill attended Columbia High School, where she was a member of the track team, cheerleading squad and was a classmate of actor Zach Braff.

She also took violin lessons, went to dance class, and founded the school's gospel choir.

Academically, she took advanced placement classes and received primarily 'A' grades.

Hill gained further prominence as the frontwoman of the hip hop trio Fugees, which she formed in 1990 with fellow New Jerseyans Wyclef Jean and Pras.

She landed a role in the soap opera As the World Turns (1991), and starred in the off-Broadway play Club XII alongside MC Lyte.

Her performance as Rita in the film Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit (1993) was widely praised.

Their second album, The Score (1996) peaked atop the Billboard 200, and led her to become the first woman to win the Grammy Award for Best Rap Album.

The album included the hit singles "Killing Me Softly" and "Ready or Not".

As a soloist, she first guest performed on Nas' 1996 single, "If I Ruled the World (Imagine That)".

In the following year, the Fugees disbanded and Hill wrote, produced, and directed the music video for Aretha Franklin's single "A Rose Is Still a Rose".

Her debut solo album, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill (1998) was met with widespread critical acclaim and commercial success.

The album made Hill the first Women rapper to both debut atop the Billboard 200 and receive a diamond certification by Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA); it remains one of the best-selling albums of all time worldwide.

Its lead single, "Doo Wop (That Thing)" debuted at number one on the Billboard Hot 100, and was listed as a Song of the Century by the RIAA.

Its follow up singles, "Ex-Factor" and "Everything Is Everything" peaked within the top 40 on the chart.

In 1999, Hill became the first rapper to grace the cover of Time magazine, received a President's Award from the NAACP for her humanitarian work, and released the Bob Marley duet "Turn Your Lights Down Low".

Furthermore, she produced and wrote Mary J. Blige's single "All That I Can Say".

Her work as a producer on Santana's album Supernatural (1999), earned her a consecutive Grammy Award for Album of the Year.

Her live album of newly recorded material, MTV Unplugged No. 2.0 (2002) reached the top five on the Billboard 200 chart and was certified platinum by the RIAA.

Ultimately, Hill dropped out of the public eye, only periodically releasing singles.

In 2014, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill became the first recording by a woman rapper to be selected for the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress.

In 2015, she was ranked as the greatest female rapper by Billboard.

Her other accolades include eight Grammy Awards—the most for any female rapper.

Hill began her career as a teen actress.