While she was a freshman at Columbia High School, Hill was approached by Pras Michel for a band he was starting, which would include his cousin Wyclef Jean. They named themselves the Fugees and released the albums Blunted on Reality (1994) and The Score (1996), the latter of which sold six million copies in the U.S. and won the Grammy Award for Best Rap Album.

Within the group, she picked up the nickname "L. Boogie" for her lyrical skills.

Although she is better known for her head-turning performance as inner-city Catholic school teenager Rita Louise Watson in Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit, Lauryn first appeared as a 1930s gum-popping elevator operator in Steven Soderbergh's 1993 film King Of The Hill.

The Fugees version of "Killing Me Softly" features "percussive rhythms" with "a synth sitar sound, Wyclef's blurted chants, Hill's vocal melisma on the scatted bridge, and a bombastic drum-loop track." It won the 1997 Grammy for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal.

In 1996, Hill founded the Refugee Project to transform the attitudes and behavior of urban youth. Part of this initiative was Camp Hill, which sent 100 at-risk teenagers to the Catskill Mountains each year for a two-week retreat designed to enhance campers' cultural awareness and self-esteem.

Her full name is Lauryn Noelle Hill.

Hill has a total of six children, five of whom were fathered by Rohan Marley, former football star and son of music legend Bob Marley.

The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 chart, selling 422,624 copies in its first week, which broke a record for first-week sales by a female artist. Its lyrics touch upon Hill's first pregnancy and the turmoil within her former group the Fugees.

"Ex-Factor" raised some controversy surrounding claims that it was about former groupmate Wyclef Jean of the Fugees.

She was nominated for Best R&B Song for "All That I Can Say", which she wrote and produced for Mary J. Blige's fifth studio album Mary (1999). Lauryn also sang backing vocals on the song.