Raised mostly in South Orange, New Jersey, Hill began singing with her music-oriented family during her childhood. She appeared in the 1993 film "" alongside Whoopi Goldberg. In high school, Hill was approached by Pras Michel for a band he started, which his cousin Wyclef Jean soon joined. They renamed themselves the Fugees and released the albums "Blunted on Reality" (1994) and the Grammy Award-winning "The Score" (1996), which sold seven million copies in the U.S. Hill rose to prominence for her African-American and Caribbean music influences on her rapping and singing as well as her performance on the Fugees version of "Killing Me Softly". She began to focus on solo projects, writing and producing "A Rose Is Still a Rose" by Aretha Franklin, then featuring on the Grammy Award-nominated songs "If I Ruled the World (Imagine That)" by Nas and Guantanamera by Wyclef Jean. Her tumultuous romantic relationship with Jean led to the split of the band in 1997, after which she began work on her solo album.