Inside "The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill"

Jayson Jackson (former manager, Lauryn Hill): The Fugees were on the road in the summer of '96 and Lauryn called me like, "I can't believe these muthafuckers. I've been talking about making my solo record for the longest and they're doing everybody's solo record but mine! I'm leaving the group, I've had it." I was like, call [then-Sony Chairman] Donnie Ienner. And she was like, "I don't wanna fuck with them, I just wanna get a whole new crew."

Vada Nobles (producer/programmer): My friend Kilo called and said, "Yo, bring some music, Lauryn Hill wants us to come to her house!" In her living room, Lauryn had on a brown robe, she was pregnant. She was saying she's moving on from the Fugees and considering doing a solo record. She was looking to put together her own creative support team. She came up with the name New-Ark. Her mother said that Lauryn prayed for a situation like this.

Commissioner Gordon Williams (engineer/project supervisor): In the beginning, the New-Ark guys were the core who put the basic tracks together. Vada was a programmer who made drum beats, Kilo [Rasheem Pugh] would write hooks and lyrics, Tejumold Newton played piano and Johari Newton played guitar.

Rohan Marley (Bob Marley's son/father of Hill's five children): She took these guys New-Ark from out of the ghetto in Newark and created a team and taught them what she knew. Nobody else wanted to work with her because there was little feud going on and Wyclef was telling people, "You work with Lauryn, you don't work with me."

Che Vicious (formerly Che Guevera; producer): I worked with 'Clef and Lauryn knew I wasn't happy with some of the business with 'Clef, so she asked me to come co-produce. She wanted me and [producer/keyboardist] James Poyser at her utter disposal. We gave her a price for that. That's when she brought Vada and New-Ark in. I call it the A team and B team. We never really worked together. By the time the album was done I actually had to re-do their stuff and make it stronger.

Jackson: Music was always a collaborative effort with her. With 'Clef and Jerry Wonder [Fugees producer Jerry Duplessis], they just kicked ideas and that's how music got made. So when she started on her own, she was lonely. I remember her talking about the New-Ark guys like, they're cool dudes and they're young. The genius of that record, it began with her and it ended with her. She wanted it to sound muddy, like an old record scratching and her engineer Gordon was able to capture it.