Lauryn Hill Says She’s “Forever Grateful” to Roberta Flack in Touching Tribute: “Rest in Grace Beloved”

As part of The Fugees, singer-songwriter Lauryn Hill rose to prominence in the mid-90s on the wings of the group’s take on Roberta Flack‘s classic ‘Killing Me Softly‘ – a Hip-Hop-inspired rendition that’s set in stone as one of the genre’s most beloved singles of all time.

A staple in her live shows beyond the Rap trio’s break up, Hill has been no stranger for paying tribute to the legendary soulstress for the impact ‘Softly’ has had on her career over the last 30 years – a salute that continued even this week in light of reports of Roberta’s death.

Just a day after megastars like Oprah Winfrey, Jamie Foxx, Toni Braxton, Spike Lee, Viola Davis, Chaka Khan, Kelly Rowland, Alicia Keys, Jennifer Hudson, and more took to social media to bid Flack a final farewell, Lauryn did the same with a touching tribute lifted to her official Instagram handle.

Look inside to see her heartwarming words.

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“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. She looked cool and intelligent, gentle and yet militant. The songs she recorded from ‘Compared To What’ to ‘The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face’ to her version of ‘Ballad Of The Sad Young Men’ fascinated me with their beauty and sophistication,” Lauryn told her 1.4 million followers on the platform. “Mrs. Flack was an artist, a singer-songwriter, a pianist and composer who moved me and showed me through her own creative choices and standards what else was possible within the idiom of Soul. Killing Me Softly, a song Mrs. Flack didn’t write, but made hugely popular became the song that catapulted myself and the Fugees into household phenomena. 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.”

[photo source: Getty / AP Photos]