Lauryn Hill honoured with Living Legend Icon Award at BET Awards

Musician and actress Lauryn Hill has received the inaugural Living Legend Icon Award at the BET Awards in the United States. At the Los Angeles ceremony, rapper Ice Cube took the audience back to the moment Hill first came to the world's consciousness — as Rita Louise Watson in the 1993 smash hit movie Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit. "Today, Ms Lauryn Hill is one of the greatest voices in Black music history," Cube said. "But we first met her in a school uniform opposite Whoopi Goldberg." The inaugural Living Legend Icon Award recognises pioneers whose work has remained culturally essential across generations. Cube said Hill was studying some of the best hip hop artists in the industry while she was portraying a student in the film. "Her musical career extended beyond singing and rapping," Cube said. "She also helped shape the sound of icons — writing and producing for Aretha Franklin, Whitney Houston, Mary J Blige and Carlos Santana. "But her truest legacy was her heart for humanity." Hill has mentored inner city youth and provided wells to communities in East Africa. Cube said the MCs she once studied now study her. The musician, actress and humanitarian is best known for her groundbreaking debut solo album The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, which was the first hip hop album to earn Album of the Year at the Grammys. Hill is also known as being the frontwoman of the Fugees and their track Killing Me Softly from the 1996 album The Score. The eight-time Grammy award winning artist was serenaded with her own music by artists including Lizzo, Nas, Common, Queen Latifah, SZA, and Doja Cat, as well as some of the children she shares with Rohan Marley, son of reggae legend Bob Marley. One of her sons present at the ceremony was celebrating his birthday. Born Lauryn Noelle Hill on May 26, 1975, in South Orange, New Jersey, Hill has inspired generations of artists. She took to the stage at the ceremony to perform and accept her award. Wearing shades and a ruffled gown with puffy sleeves, Hill spoke about the motivation behind what she does. "I do this because I love y'all," she said. "I do this because I want y'all to have everything I experienced, right?" Hill said she grew up with wonderful parents who loved and protected her. "Once I realised that not everybody got to have that experience, I felt like it was my duty, my responsibility to share as much love and to pour into [as] much people as I possibly could," she said. "And music was a way for me to do that, OK? "But also, I have always cared about the expression and the representation of the dignity of our people." Hill said sometimes it was up to artists to say uncomfortable things and to trust that people would understand later. She told the audience to keep "gifting". "Somebody out there needs your gift," Hill said.