Claim:   During an MTV interview singer Lauryn Hill said, "I would rather die than have a white person buy one of my albums."

Status:   False.

Origins:   In 1996 a caller to the Howard Stern show claimed Lauryn Hill of The Fugees made anti-white statements during an MTV interview, to the effect that she rather see her child starve than have a white kid buy her album.

The inflammatory comment Hill supposedly made varies:

• "If I'd known white people were going to buy my last album, I never would have recorded it."
• "I would rather have my children starve than have white people buy my albums."
• "I would rather die than have a white person buy one of my albums."

Sometimes the rumor is reported as:

• When asked on MTV about their feelings on having the number one album in the nation, The Fugees said they'd "rather see babies starve and die than have white kids" buy their album.

Let's put this one to rest — if Hill or any other member of the Fugees had said anything like that on MTV or anywhere else, the tape of those remarks would have hounded them ever after. That no one can produce this tape — or even agree on what was said, and by whom — should drive a stake through this rumor's heart.

MTV would later announce the allegation against Hill wasn't true, but by then it was too late — the rumor was already in motion. In the wake of this slander, Hill did call in to rebut the comment on the Howard Stern Show. On numerous other occasions, she has denied saying anything remotely resembling the statement credited to her. In response to her critics, she offered: "What I did say was that I love my people, black people, and I will continue to make music for them."

[Teen People, April 1999]

Lauryn insists she wants people to understand that her goal to improve the self-love of young African-American women should never be confused with advocating racial supremacy. "There are a lot of young black girls who I meet in my travels who don't have a lot of self-esteem," she explains. "So if I communicate to them that they're beautiful, no white person should find fault in that. It doesn't mean that young white girls aren't beautiful, because they are just as beautiful."

Would any recording artist be foolish enough to request that a segment of the music-buying public boycott her works? This quote is likely a backlash born of Hill's success, one that parallels the specious Tommy Hilfiger rumor ("If I knew that Blacks and Asians were going to wear my clothes, I would have never designed them"). It is possible one of Hill's many Black-positive statements was misconstrued as a white-negative comment by someone possessed of questionable listening skills and regurgitated as such.

The Hilfiger and Hill rumors, though similar, display a curious dichotomy. Although no other tales circulate about Hilfiger's alleged racism, we continue to receive many different reports claiming that even if Hill didn't make the statement attributed to her here, she has disparaged non-blacks in other words and deeds (usually ones the teller asserts he — or someone he knows — personally witnessed). Whether this phenomenon says more about the subject or the audience is something we don't yet know.

Barbara "hilling me softly" Mikkelson

Sightings:   A lyric from "Cum On Everybody," a Eminem song off the 1999 The Slim Shady LP, states "Bought Lauryn Hill's tape so her kids could starve."

Last updated:   25 September 2007

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  Sources:

    Teen People.   "Queen of the Hill."

    May 1999   (pp. 65-70).