Lauryn Hill Breaks Down "Neurotic Society"

Lauryn Hill breaks down the lyrics to her single "Neurotic Society" - the fireball of social commentary she dropped in the midst of her recent tax trial. She recently delivered a lengthy manifesto on her Tumblr page explaining her intentions as a musician and outlining the points she was attempting to make with the track, which features a fat bass line against a scattered mash of sounds and snares with L-Boogie standing atop the heap rhyming like she has a bomb strapped to her chest. She explains her hard-hitting lyrics as an attempt to begin an honest conversation:

The whole world suffers from a lack of honest dialogue. Character and integrity have suffered at the hands of political correctness and corporate agenda, while our society moves further and further towards unhealthiness and breakdown. I oppose these trends.

Everyone has a right to their own beliefs. Although I do not necessarily agree with what everyone says or does, I do believe in everyone’s right to protest. The overarching message of my music is to get up and stop compromising! And hopefully it will stimulate and motivate the changes that our society needs.

Whether you side with her assessments of society or not, she brings up a number of points that are worthy of discussion and publicly critical of popular culture; she delivers the kind of attack that is rarely broadcast from the mouths of major artists and put to record. Her latest message follows a recent surprise show in Brooklyn and comes as she prepares to serve a three-month sentence on charges of tax evasion. Following her time away, she will return to head Obverse Creation Music - her new label with Sony. Take a look at the full breakdown of Lauryn Hill's "Neurotic Society" below. Purchase Lauryn Hill's "Neurotic Society" via iTunes.

Neurotic Society is a song about people not being, or not being able to be, who and what they truly are, due to the current social construct. I am not targeting any particular group of people, but rather targeting everyone in our society who hides behind neurotic behavior, rather than deal with it.

The world we live in now is, in many ways, an abhorrent distortion, an accumulation of generations and generations of response to negative stimuli. Many don’t even have a concept of what normal is, by virtue of having lived afraid, ashamed, as victims of abuse, or inadequately handled for so long. I believe in coming up from under that fear and allowing the psyche/soul to truly heal. I understand that healing is a process, but I also believe that it is our responsibility to seriously care for ourselves, so that we can extend that level of concern for others and positively affect our environment.

I want what is best for Humanity. Humanity, aligned with the Spiritual principles, that help each individual conquer fear, and transcend limited circumstance. I believe in healing and dealing with the traumatizing events of our lives, both in this lifetime, as well as those passed down to us, or inherited, so we can live as fully as possible.

The whole world suffers from a lack of honest dialogue. Character and integrity have suffered at the hands of political correctness and corporate agenda, while our society moves further and further towards unhealthiness and breakdown. I oppose these trends.

Everyone has a right to their own beliefs. Although I do not necessarily agree with what everyone says or does, I do believe in everyone’s right to protest.

The overarching message of my music is to get up and stop compromising! And hopefully it will stimulate and motivate the changes that our society needs.

Artists are constantly under media and public scrutiny. This is not a one-way street. Those of us with the charge of putting out faithful vibrations, have a responsibility to report what we see, and to write about what we know. I have seen some of the best and also some of the worst representations of human behavior. The same way that I exalt that which is high, is the same way I expose that which is abusive, in order to motivate and remind if not all of us, than as many as possible, of the Higher Calling.