Lauryn Hill has paid tribute to the star who popularized the song sampled in the Fugees hit “Killing Me Softly With His Song.” Taking to Instagram, she shared some words about the late Roberta Flack, who passed away Monday at 88 years old.
“Whitney Houston once said to me that Roberta Flack’s voice was one of the purest voices she’d ever heard. I grew up scouring the records my Parents collected. Mrs. Flack was one of their favorites and quite instantly became one of mine as soon as I was exposed to her,” Lauryn began, noting she was fascinated by songs like “Compared To What” and “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face.”
Lauryn also referenced “Killing Me Softly,” a song Flack didn’t write, but “made hugely popular.”
“[It] became the song that catapulted myself and the Fugees into household phenomena,” she wrote of the track. “We wanted to honor the beauty and brilliance of this song and her performance of it to our generation. I will forever be grateful for the sensitivity and delicate power of her Love and Artistry. Rest in Grace Beloved One.”
Flack heard Lori Lieberman‘s “Killing Me Softly” on an airplane and went on to record her rendition, which topped the Billboard Hot 100 and became record of the year at the 1974 Grammy Awards.
The Fugees later dropped their version of the song, which won the 1997 Grammy for best R&B performance by a duo or group with vocal and has since been certified triple Platinum by the RIAA.
Flack and the Fugees performed the song together at the MTV Movie Awards in 1996.
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