Inspiration – Lauryn Hill

Selected quotes and notes from Count Time Podcast with LD Azobra – Inspiration

https://mslaurynhill.com/

Isiah Thomas
I just want to introduce a big inspiration to myself my daughter my family and all the women who are in the audience today can you can you just come up and just let me let just let everybody see miss Lauren Hill just say hello.

[Applause]

Lauren Hill
Hi everybody um yes what am I doing?

I came sort of late in the program I kind of listened to some of the things that people have had to say I think early on I was in arts and music I had a brother who was in who was in the tech space ironically. when I was a child, my father was a computer programmer and an entrepreneur my mother was an english teacher and uh we kind of grew up my brother and I the fusion of those energies and those focuses.

i heard you chameleon talk about your thirst for information I think that thirst for information is a thirst for empowerment which is also connected to a thirst for freedom. I remember this this was like I want to say you know late 90s early 2000s I saw my brother you know he had very high hopes about the potential of the tech space but I don’t think that at that point we had come together we weren’t walking together it was sort of there were people who were like makers of content and then there were text-based professionals and people who had a desire right to be in this space but I don’t think at that point that they understood to what degree they had to hold hands in order to make the relationship successful

i think since i’ve been away and as time has passed those two communities are holding hands much better they have a better respect for each other you know um I used to say something jokingly back in the day about how you had street folks who kind of legitimized the academics and the academics who legitimized what the people on the streets were doing even the concept that you mentioned just now about the inner nerd I think what’s happening is that everybody is sort of being allowed to be themselves meaning that the the street intellectual is acknowledging that he’s an intellectual you know what I mean or he also is an academic of something. and then you have the people who are in the academic space and they realize that they also have a world of experience and desires culturally creatively that they want to also aspire to.

i think before in the world there was this huge schism right there was kind of like uh the history of slavery where you had the the the house slave right in the and the slave in the field you had people who were given permission or who were granted permission to reach a certain academic status and in order to to get to that academic level they had to sort of divorce themselves of every other drive and all all the other energies. and then you had the people who were left in the fields who had these very raw energies you know they were life life force energies but they weren’t really allowed with the with the volatility you know and the hostility that came from the experience of slavery to touch the academic spaces. there were few people within that community who could touch both worlds they they crossed both spaces they were both academics and they were also they also had access to the streets. musicians many musicians people in music world were able to do that right. they were people say uh you know where’s your inner ceo if you’re a rapper but if you were a rapper you had to be ceo of something in order for you to be in a platform to be doing what you were doing in that place on any any level of of significance. um

i just want to say that i’m seeing the world sort of come come together more these energies have always been around you know this this thing we term it hustle. but it’s really just the ingenuity necessary to survive, you know and navigate in the world. we call it hustle because um I imagine that’s just you know our way of giving it a name because sometimes we want to divorce ourselves from from the academic space because that academic space was a source of brutality and hostility for a long time. but the reality of it of it is is it still wisdom it’s still knowledge it’s still invention it’s still development you know and it’s still progress.

so I think as we kind of pull back these labels we can acknowledge brilliance in the streets we can acknowledge soul in the academic space and we can allow these things to come together the world is filled with way too many bright people for us to still have the problems that we have in the world. it’s it’s going to be our shame you know what I mean that we don’t sit together and create people who
do all these things all these thing that we do digitally technologically economically we can feed people we can we can educate people through poverty we can solve the problems of poverty poverty isn’t even something that should exist in this world at this point because we have wealth we have intellect we have the ability to develop and design and create whatever we want to.

the question is do we want to? that’s what we have to ask ourselves. um you know i’ve been away from a lot of things you know for for a while now and um and incubating you know ideas and doing what I needed to do to to to how do I say uh to deal with the resistance that comes with making change in the world. you know we ask ourselves you know how come these things haven’t been around or why was this thing not invented there was a reason there were forces that were set up to prevent you know certain patterns of evolution certain patterns of development right all this this this this street hustle right it it would have dominated if it really had you know access early on. which is why I was suppressed you know I mean which which is why I was met with resistance. but we have the ability now
and go past it you know and I think it just takes courageous folks you know who are not afraid to see the new world that’s on the horizon you know separated by education and economics you know we actually can make spaces for everyone. but it requires that the creatives the academics you know the intellectuals those who think with their heart and emotional intelligent ones you know all come together you know in the same platform with the same kind of driving and unifying unifying forces

to see this world improve we have the answers we have so many of the answers we have the technology we have the wealth we just have to be willing to share it and in order for us to do that we have to do the work in and on ourselves so that we can be conduits of change and improvement for other people because that’s really what it’s about we have the ability we have to be in a position where we’re willing to do that for others because we’re so confident in our own abilities and our own grace and our own blessings that we can actually pass knowledge and information on to others but we can make a way you know. I think part of the reason why there’s so much invention in the technological space right now is because you have a lot of young cats who weren’t given the tools but they certainly have the ability and what the space does is it neutralizes so much so that you know if you don’t have on the right clothing or you don’t choose all the right words all the time you still have a way.

so in that respect we should be very proud you know what I mean very very happy very pleased with what’s happening um we just want to make sure that we retain freedom though you know and that we uh we always retain our right to our integrity. you know that no amount of money or no uh kind of relationships compromise our ability to make decisions that aren’t just money based

Isiah Thomas
you know what it means say that one more time

Lauryn Hill
to make sure that we’re we’re in a position always to make decisions that aren’t just money-based but that are moral that are ethical that are right that are right that we evolve you know uh we evolve morally emotionally spiritually uh ethically as we evolve technologically financially we just have to make sure that we we’re aligned you know. I wasn’t even prepared to talk

Isiah Thomas
hey a voice that’s been missing for too long come on back sister come on back we need you we need you. jaylen brown thank you sir