Dissect - MS1E3 - "To Zion" by Lauryn Hill

Episode Date: November 20, 2018

Ms. Lauryn Hill's timeless ballad "To Zion" tells a powerful story about the birth of her first child. We dive deep into its lyrics and discover how its harmonic structure reflects the song's themes of uncertainty. Follow @dissectpodcast on Twitter and Instagram. Join our newsletter at dissectpodcast.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

From Spotify Studios, this is Dysect, long-form musical analysis broken into short digestible episodes. I'm your host, Cole Kushna. Today we continue our serialized analysis of the miseducation of Lauren Hill. On our last episode, we dissected the album's opening two songs, Lost Ones and X Factor. We heard how the two expressed a dualistic view of the dissolution of Miss Hill's relationship with Wycliffe Jean, asserting her strength and autonomy on Lost Ones, while revealing vulnerability and anguously. on X Factor. Ms. Hill adds another dimension to her personal dissertation on love

with the album's next track, the subject of today's episode, Two Zion. Two Zion was written by Lauren Hill and produced by Hill and Shay Grevera. Rivera recounted the initial conception of Two Zion with Red Bull media. And it's funny that he played that record because we used to have this. When we first got to New York, she had this little brownstone, like bottom floor, And they had this little, at the top floor, there was a little studio part available that I rented for my studio, if you will, that had no air conditioning. And New York summers get very hot and humid. So literally, when you have your equipment in there, it gets even hotter.

So I could literally only work in this room for like 15 minutes at a time before like you'd incinerate yourself in the gear. So I made that, Zion was made in that room originally where I had like 15 minute times where I could get in there for 15 minutes. leave, come back, and Zion was made out of that. And then I played it for her. And that's how we worked a lot. Sometimes I would just sketch at home, sometimes I was just sketching the studio. And I played it for her, and she started crying. And at first I was like, oh, I'm sorry.

I didn't know it was that bad. And I was like, I thought I liked it, you know. And, you know, so she literally started crying. And I was like, it's not that bad. Like, you know, and she was like, you know, and she was like, you know, I've been, I've had this song in my head. And she was pregnant at the time for the majority of the album, pregnant. So she had this, she's like, I've had this song idea for, you know, my son and

everybody's been telling me to get an abortion and so on and so forth. And I didn't know what the song was going to sound like. And she's like, now I do. Two Zion's infrastructure is comprised of two samples, around which live instruments are added. The drums are taken from Lou Donaldson's 1967 track Ode to Billy Joe. For the main harmonic accompaniment, Sheik Rivera loops a sample taken from Latin guitar. Jose Feliciano's 1974 track and The Feelings Good. Rivera takes the first four chords of this introduction and loops them. The sampled drums are added beneath this loop, embellished by live drums played by Jared Crawford.

Bass is then added by James Poyser. Later, harp is added by Grace Paradise. Renowned guitarist Carlos Santana initiates the musical material with a guitar solo used as the songs in the song's introduction. Regarding the collaboration with Santana, Ms. Hill told the Rolling Stone, quote, That totally came from my parents' record collection. I remember finding his Abraxas album in the basement and looking at the cover going, wow, this is real, what's this? It had all this stuff going on, all this beautiful artwork on the cover. And then I remember putting on the record and wanting to cry. I put this one song on, Samba Patti, and it just gave me chills. I used to write my first songs to other people's music, and this particular album had this beautiful, soulful guitar,

and it was instrumental, so I was in heaven. From that time, Owee Come Ova, Black Magic Woman, all those songs really just touched me and gave me an appreciation for guitar and for the Latin African rhythms, unquote. Miss Hill ad-libs over the song's introduction, saying, One Day, you're going to understand Zion. In the Bible's Old Testament, Zion or Mount Zion refers to the eastern hill of ancient Jerusalem, the capital of Israel. Zion often stands in to mean the city of Jerusalem itself. The term carries with it heavy religious and emotional weight due to the importance of Jerusalem

as the holy city, the city of the temple, the location where Yahweh, the god of Israel, reigned. Ms. Hill's title, to Zion, likely refers to the Bible passage Jeremiah 314 that reads, quote, return, O faithless children, declares the Lord, for I am your master. I will take you, one from a city, two from a family, and I will bring you to Zion, unquote. As this passage continues, it's acknowledged that in Zion, in Jerusalem, these lost souls will write themselves, quote, I will give you shepherds after my own heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding. At that time, Jerusalem shall be called the throne of the Lord, and all nations shall gather to it, to the presence of the Lord in Jerusalem, and they shall

no more stubbornly follow their own evil heart, unquote. Zion thus becomes a destination symbolic of spiritual replenishment, a holy place where Abrahamic religions travel on pilgrimages. In Rastafari, a movement that developed in Jamaica in the 1930s, Africa is referred to as Zion, as Africa is to them a heavenly paradise, a place of spiritual restoration in the same way that Jerusalem is that place to Christianity. With to Zion, Ms. Hill intertwines the religious, spiritual, and historic meaning of Zion, together with her firstborn tributtal. whom she named Zion. She told Rolling Stone, quote, I wanted it to be a song that had two meanings, where Zion is representative of not only my son, but of this holy place. I wanted it to be a revolutionary song about a spiritual movement, and also about my spiritual change, going from one place to another

because of my son, unquote. She elaborated on this point with Vibe magazine, quote, names wouldn't come when I was getting ready to have him. The only name that came to me was Zion. I was like, is Zion too much of a weight to carry? But this little boy, man, I would say he personally delivered me from emotional and spiritual drought. He just replenished my newness. When he was born, I almost felt like I was born again, unquote. Indeed, Miss Hill's first pregnancy was not without controversy, sending Miss Hill into an emotional

spiritual crisis of sorts. As you remember from our first episode this season, Miss Hill became pregnant at age 21, the same year the Fugis released the score. and were quickly becoming an international sensation. Many saw the pregnancy as a conflict of interest, including some in her inner circle and at a record label. Lauren Hill was a superstar in the making, and having a child was viewed as a hindrance in her development as an artist.

Ms. Hill was pressured by some to have an abortion, but she chose instead to keep the child, which she viewed as a direct blessing from God. It was the decision that provided clarity and a sense of priority. Confusion was before my children came. You know, I think my children just cleared the air. The whole atmosphere was just cleared immediately. Like, when they were born, like, I realized everything.

You know what I mean? Like, everything just became clear. You know, it's like everything that I didn't see before, my eyes just, they just popped open, and I started seeing things that I never saw before. In 2, Zion, Miss Hill shares with an incredible intimacy and honesty, her emotions during pregnancy,

and after the birth of her first child. She begins the song with the lines, Unsure of what the balance held, I touched my belly overwhelmed by what I had been chosen to perform. You'll remember from our last episode, the compositional technique called text painting, that is when the music is written to reflect what is being said in the song's lyrics. In the case of X Factor, we noted how the line it could all be so simple was sung using a simple melody

and how the next line, but you'd rather make it hard, was sung using a more complex melody. Here on the opening of 2 Zion, Miss Hill speaks about the initial uncertainty she felt about her pregnancy, about being forced to choose and overwhelmed by the potential consequences of her decision. Reflecting Miss Hill's emotional state, there's a harmonic uncertainty and lack of resolution in the song's accompaniment. 2-Zion is built on a 4-cord progression that repeats the entire song. E-major, F-sharp minor 7, G-sharp dominant 7, and C-sharp minor. As you likely know, songs are typically written in a certain key signature. For example, if a song is written in E-major, the song will primarily use the seven notes found in the E-major key signature,

and it will resolve or feel conclusive when an E-major chord is played. the tonic or home chord of the key signature. Doesn't that feel resolved? Like you're okay with things ending there. It feels complete. That's because I played chords found in the E major key signature and it ended on an E major chord, giving it that resolution.

Even if you can't explain it, most of us can feel that intuitively. Now unless you're a musician, you may not know that for every major key signature, there's what's called a relative minor key signature. It's called relative minor because the two keys are closely related. That's because the relative minor key

uses all the same notes as its major key counterpart. So for example, the E major key signature has a relative minor key of C sharp minor. E major and C sharp minor share the same exact seven notes, but C sharp minor, like all minor key signatures, has a darker, more broody tonal quality. Compare that with its relative E major.

E major sounds brighter, happy, year, right? Think of them like two sides of the same coin. One's bright and sunny, one's dark and melancholy. But they're both the coin. They both share the same notes. They just express themselves a little differently. Now the biggest difference between the two key signatures is a relative minor's use of what's called a raised leading tone. Without going too far down a rabbit hole, a raised leading tone alters or raises one specific note in the key, typically at a cadence or a point of resolution. So, for example, the related key signatures we've been discussing, E major and C-sharp minor, both contain a B-natural. But at times, when a song is using the C-sharp minor side of the

coin, it will alter that B-natural, it will raise it up one half-step to a B-sharp. Let's hear this in action, which will make it much easier to understand. Here's a progression played in C-sharp minor. The second-to-last chord used a raise leading tone. It changed what should be a B-natural to a B sharp. This is done to make a stronger cadence, a stronger feeling of resolution when the final chord is played. What would it sound like if we didn't raise that B? If we kept it a B natural?

Well, it would still work, but the resolution wouldn't feel as complete or satisfying. Let's hear that progression again without using a raised leading tone, without changing that B natural. Let's hear those final two chords again. And now I'll play the same two chords with the raised leading tone.

Feel how much stronger and resolute that ending feels? That's why the leading tone is raised, to make that cadence stronger, grounding the song firmly in its minor key signature, to make it clear that in this case, it's in C-sharp minor and not E-major. Now let's return to Lauren Hill's 2-Zion. Like I said, the song is built on four chords,

E-major, F-sharp minor 7, G-sharp dominant 7, and C-sharp minor. The interesting thing about this progression is that it's somewhat ambiguous, that is, it plays between the lines of E major and its relative key C-sharp minor. It begins with an E-major chord, making us feel like it could be in the E-major key signature. It progresses to a F-sharp minor 7, a standard chord found in the E-major key signature. But it then moves to the third chord, G-sharp Dominant 7, a chord that makes use of the raised

leading tone. It changes what should be a B, to a B sharp. This is then followed by a C sharp minor chord, the progression's fourth and final chord. Now it suddenly feels like we're in C sharp minor, not E major. Now here's the kicker. Just a half a beat after the C sharp minor chord is played, the bass guitar plays a B natural, not a B sharp like we just heard.

Again, a B natural is what we expect to hear in an E major key signature. This B natural acts as a pickup or lead-in to the first chord of the pre-natural. progression, the E major chord, and the four-cord progression repeats. Just like before, we're back to feeling as if the song could be an E-major, especially after hearing that be natural. But as the progression continues, by the fourth and final chord, we feel like we're in C-sharp minor. This repeats throughout the entire track, this oscillation between major and minor, this total uncertainty. We never feel too comfortable. There's never clear, sustained resolution one way or the other. It creates a bed of tension upon which the entire song rests, reflecting tonally what Miss Hill presents thematically

in the song's opening lines. She says, unsure of what the balance held, expressing the uncertainty of her pregnancy. Later in the verse, she'll speak of the push-pull battle between wanting to keep the child and the pressures from some to abort. And again, this push-pull battle is reflected tonally in the battle and unrest of the song's competing key signatures and lack of resolution. I know this might seem like a minor point, but I feel like that unrest. both in the song's subject matter and tonal infrastructure, work together to elevate the emotional impact of the song, one of the reasons why many of us feel so moved by this composition.

An accurate musical atmosphere, one that reflects and accentuates an artist's emotion and message, is the reason we set words to music in the first place. It's likely the reason why Miss Hill cried the first time she heard the instrumental for what would become to Zion. She heard abstractly the feeling that was already in her heart. Her words met the music halfway, and together they unified to create something infinitely more powerful than the sum of their parts. We'll break down Miss Hill's words as we continue our thorough examination of Two Zion right after the break.

Welcome back to dissect. Having used the first half of our episode to break down the backstory of Zion and the song's instrumental, let's now dive into the song's lyrics, beginning with verse one. I touch my belly overwhelmed by what I have been chosen to perform. But then an angel came one day, told me to kneel down and pray, for unto me a man shall would be born. Narratively, Miss Hill introduces the song's subject with verse 1's opening lines, unsure of what the balance held, I touched my belly overwhelmed, by what I have been chosen to perform.

As we noted earlier, Miss Hill's experience. expressing the initial uncertainty she felt about her pregnancy. More than most, it seemed Ms. Hill's life path was well defined from a young age, a successful actress and artist who at the age of 21, was just entering the international consciousness, was just getting a taste of elite commercial success. The traditional path forward is to tour, to record and sell more albums, to continue to capitalize on the commercial success. The unplanned pregnancy was a curveball no one saw coming, not even Ms. Hill herself. The forced a personal re-examination of her life and career path,

leaving her, as she says, overwhelmed. But career is just one element in these opening lines. The lyrics actually came to her when thinking about the health of her child. Quote, I was sick with the flu, and I was terrified because I thought I was going to give it to him. My mother was like, relax, and those lyrics just came to me, unquote. To me, this expresses something more universal than just Miss Hill's unique set of circumstances at the time. It expresses the universal pressures that come with having a child, especially your first child. It can surface self-doubt, worry, anxiety, panic, paranoia, second-guessing, a whole host of

emotions over the course of nine months as you both physically and mentally prepare yourself to bring a child into this world. Miss Hill's words are so universal that even as a father, I hear touch my belly overwhelmed, and can genuinely feel the weight behind those words. planned or unplanned, the thought of being responsible for a child, its future, and by extension, the future of the world, well, it's a reality check every 2B mother and father is confronted with. The interesting thing about line 3, by what I had been chosen to perform, is that Ms. Hill brings up choice. We traditionally think of choice regarding a pregnancy as the choice between keeping the child or having an abortion. But here, Miss Hill speaks about another type of choice, about God's choice to give her a child.

This is elaborated on as the verse continues, but then an angel came one day, told me to kneel down and pray, for unto me a man-child would be born. This alludes to the Bible story of the conception of Jesus Christ, in which the Virgin Mary was visited by an angel. Luke 126 reads, quote, In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man named Joseph.

The virgin's name was Mary, and he came to her and said, greetings favored one, the Lord is with you. But she was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. The angel said to her, don't be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And now you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus, unquote. The story aligns with the one Miss Hill presents on to Zion, being visited by an angel and told that she would bear a manchild. Of course, we don't believe Miss Hill was claiming her child to be the second coming of Christ, Rather, she views this child and perhaps all children as gifts or benedictions from God, as divine creations with the power of deliverance. In other words, we do not choose them, they choose us.

As verse one continues, Ms. Hill gets specific about her unique set of circumstances around this pregnancy. Oh, this crazy circumstance, I knew his life deserved a chance, but everybody told me to be smart. This opening verse continues Lauren, baby, use your head But instead I chose to use my heart This opening verse continues with the line Woe this crazy circumstance

As we mentioned earlier, the crazy circumstance Is the fact that she became pregnant Just as the Fugis were finding elite commercial success But she's also likely referring to the love triangle Between her, Wycliffe, Jean, and Rowan Marley. Weichleff and Missing Hill had been intimate close enough to the pregnancy for Wycliffe to believe the child could be his. And like Wyclef, Rowan was married when he and Miss Hill became intimate. So when Miss

Hill says crazy circumstance, we consider her young age at 21, her newfound success, the initial question of who's the father, and the fact that either potential father was married. And while Miss Hill acknowledges the untraditional circumstances of her pregnancy, she follows by singing, I knew his life deserved a chance. Again, she views the child as a blessing, never mind the complications around its conception, never mind those around her pushing for an abortion. She says, but everybody told me to be smart. Look at your career, they said. Lauren baby used your head. But instead, I chose to use my heart. What's striking about this passage is just how specific and personal Miss Hill gets. No doubt many in her shoes might be more cryptic

to veil the situation and metaphor. But Ms. Hill says her first name and addresses directly those pressuring her to have an abortion. She's extremely transparent, owning her situation and her decision with little regard for the potential judgment of others. She doesn't attempt to explain or justify her decisions more than saying, I chose to use my heart. Again, for the second time, she emphasizes choice. She chose head over heart, chose intuition over traditional logic, and gave birth to her first son, Zion David Marley. Regarding her decision to keep her child, Ms. Hill told the Rolling Stone, quote, I had always made decisions for other people, making everybody else happy.

And once I had him, that was really the first decision that was unpopular for me. It was one that was based on my happiness and not what other people wanted for me or for themselves. And it was the best decision that I could have ever made because I'm the happiest and healthiest that I've ever been. It also revealed to me which relationships were right, which ones were sincere, and which ones were based on exploiting and hurting me. It was a godsend all the way around. 360 degrees of that whole situation were nothing but a blessing, and I'm so happy that I made the choice that I did, unquote.

Miss Hill's elation exudes throughout the chorus of Two Zion. She expresses her jubilation with utter simplicity. Now the joy of my world is in Zion. Earlier in the episode, we discussed the historical and spiritual significance of Zion, a synonym for the holy city of Jerusalem, symbolic of spiritual replenishment and rebirth. It's also the alias for Africa and Rastafari, with a similar spiritual meaning as Jerusalem for Abrahamic religions. Naming her firstborn child Zion is an expression of her feeling that he is the metaphoric Zion,

Jerusalem, and or Africa of her world, the replenishment of her spirit that brought clarity in times of distress, her greatest joy and ultimate attainment. Specifically, the joy of my world is in Zion might refer to the Bible passage Psalm 137.6, quote, my tongue may click to the roof of my mouth if I do not remember you, if I do not consider Jerusalem my highest joy, unquote. These religious undertones are made more explicit in verse two. We should note that verse one express Ms. Hill's feelings before the birth, and now on verse two, she'll express her feelings after the birth. Beautiful is nothing more than two way to tie his door.

I've never been in love like this before. Now let's see. me pray to keep you from the perils that will surely come see life for you my prince has just begun and I thank you for choosing see I know that miss hill begins first two how beautiful if nothing more than to wait at zion's door this plays off zion as a city a place where she waits to be in service of god She follows by expressing her unconditional love of Zion, her son, and of God, singing, I've never been in love like this before. In an interview with Vibe magazine, Ms. Hill elaborated on her love for Zion, quote, It's extraordinary how these babies are created, and they come to us and through us.

It's hard to put into words. Trust me when I say this, it is the highest form of unconditional love that you can ever feel. There's nothing Zion could do that would stop me from loving him, unquote. Midway through verse 2, Ms. Hill again brings up the idea of choice. She sings, And I thank you for choosing me, to come through unto life to be a beautiful reflection of His grace. This marks the third time she has deliberately used the word choose or chose. First, it was presented as God's choice to bless her with the child. Later it was presented as her choice to keep the child. And now on verse 3, it's her child's choice of choosing her as a mother.

She's grateful for his presence, as she views it to be a reflection of her. God and a reminder of His eternal presence. In this way, Miss Hill presents a three-dimensional definition of choice as it relates to having children. In her mind, it's not only the choice of keeping the child, she also considers the divine choice from God to grant her a child, and the child itself choosing the mother. She elaborates on this singing, See, I know that a gift so great is only one God could create, and I'm reminded every time I see your face. Ms. Hill firmly cements her belief about the interconnectedness of God, in life, cements the dualistic use of Zion as both the name of her child and a symbol of God.

Unlike those who wanted her to abort, she views the child as a gift, not a burden, and she chooses to prioritize family over business, child over quote-unquote success. As two Zion continues into its second chorus, a gospel-style choir enters, formerly uniting the overtly spiritual lyrics with church-inspired musicality. Lanisha Randolph, Sabrina Johnston, Eddie Stockley, Earl Robinson, and Kenny Bobin comprise a choir. They enter the song utilizing a call-and-response technique, a distinct feature of gospel music, echoing the words joy, world, and is in Zion. As we just heard, the harmonic accompaniment of the track drops out as the song progresses, leaving just drums, a solo and guitar played by Santana and the choir. The choir plays off the marching-style band snare drum role,

singing, marching, marching, marching to Zion. Again, Zion is used here as a destination, alluding to the pilgrimage that many Bible-based religions take to Jerusalem. By definition, a pilgrimage is a journey of moral or spiritual significance, and again, Ms. Hill plays on this notion dualistically. We read again the quote first presented at the beginning of this episode. I wanted it to be a song that had two meanings, where Zion is representative of not just my son, but of this holy place. I wanted it to be a revolutionary song about a spiritual movement, and also about my spiritual change, going from one place to another because of my son, unquote. As two Zion continues, Ms. Hill delivers an impassioned sequence of vocal flourishes

that reaches the emotional extremes of a register. Shea Rivera, the song's co-producer, recounts how this sequence is actually a montage of different takes. But speaking to the technical thing of it, she was pregnant when she was singing this, and so she did all these vocals that I think it was very intense for at the end of the song you hear these vocals she's doing. And I think she was a little overwhelmed after she did him,

and she said, you take those vocals and you put them together, and when I come back, play it for me. And so I literally sampled all her vocals and chopped them in the MP. So what you're hearing at the end of the song is me playing that and triggering it from an MPC. And I think she had just done so many vocals. She was like, I don't even want to begin to think about it. Beyond the word she sings, we hear in Miss Hill's voice a cathartic release of the passion,

the heartache, and the beauty associated with having her child and the circumstances that surrounded her pregnancy. We hear in her voice a resistance against the established model. We hear the voice of an African-American woman, establishing autonomy for herself by any means necessary, standing up to the historic and systemic obstacles that challenge a person of her gender and skin color. We hear in her voice the love of God, the love of child, and the love of self that's necessary to endure such circumstances without sacrificing one's integrity. Indeed, regarding to Zion, Joan Morgan writes, quote, it was a universally powerful moment of possibility,

relatable for all women faced with pregnancy under unconventional circumstances. For black women, however, it was a deeply needed affirmation, one we rarely get, unquote. L'nai Denzi adds, Quote, the decision to do motherhood on one's own terms is a kind of resistance, and however black women decide to do it, it's the right way. Lauren's response was to create a beautiful lullaby. Two Zion concludes without harmonic instrumental accompaniment. Rather, the choir ends the piece singing the word Zion. The pitches they sing are E, G sharp, and B,

the three notes that comprise an E major chord. This is significant because it finally presents the harmonic resolution we've been yearning for the entire song. We've already discussed at length the song oscillating between E major and C-sharp minor, never quite sure which of these two related key signatures the song was grounded in. It then becomes a kind of choice. What key would Miss Hill and her team choose to resolve in? The brighter E-major or darker C-sharp minor.

With the song's last word, Zion, we finally get the answer. The brighter, more joyous E-major, is triumphant, resolving the harmonic tension built throughout the entire track. a kind of sonic representation of Lauren's choice and the joy she felt after having given birth to her child, the resolution to her own internal spiritual battle. Conclusions. Miss Lauren Hill's Two Zion is one of those rare songs that truly transcend music, but it's first an extremely specific and personal story of Miss Hill's untraditional pregnancy, a story she tells honestly and bravely in the face of the stigma and potential judgment of the world.

It's a song about choice in the truest sense of the word. For the unmarried 21-year-old Lauren Hill, she chose God first and saw her child as a gift from God, a gift she chose to keep despite the external and internal pressures to abort. But even amidst its very overt spirituality, too Zion never sounds preachy, it sounds personal. It's vulnerable and honest, 100% true to who Miss Lauren Hill is.

It's this authenticity to self that emphasizes and allows for this idea of choice, that empowers one to trust your internal instincts despite whatever external forces you face. And it's for this reason that Two Zion has resonated so deeply with so many women and mothers who face similar untraditional circumstances and felt self-assured and supported in their choice, whether that was to keep, abort, or otherwise. Indeed, author Joan Morgan writes, quote, There are so many ways Two Zion could have gone left. Strongly evangelistic with distinctly gospel overtones, it could have been the perfect pro-life track, and yet Hill beautifully and vulnerably created a vehicle that tenderly supports choice, unquote.

Dr. Trava Lindsay concurs telling Morgan, quote, as black women were offered a very limited range of choices based on our structural realities, for black women, so often reproductive justice and choice is talked about in terms of the ways we decide not to have children. But in order for real reproductive justice and choice to exist, we have to talk more honestly about how black women are also talked out of becoming mothers. There was something so powerful about Lauren, a black woman, who made a defiant choice about how she was going to do black motherhood, because everything politically and personally was telling her that she shouldn't, unquote. Indeed, just like those around Miss Hill pressuring her to prioritize career over motherhood, the idea that business trumps all is built

right into the fabric of American capitalism, if not directly stated, heavily implied by its policies. Currently, the United States is the only industrialized nation not to mandate paid leave for mothers of newborns. Over 40% of new working mothers take unpaid leave according to the Census Bureau. A comprehensive study of workers who use FMLA, the guaranteed 12 weeks of unpaid leave without the risk of losing her job, found that over half of the workers who took leave with less than full pay, said that they had trouble making enough to get by. Over a quarter of them borrowed money and nearly 40% put off paying bills.

The same study found that 3.5 million people needed leave but didn't take it because of financial constrictions. Amidst all the other inherent worries of bringing a child into the world, to do so in the United States comes with it of financial anxiety all other industrialized countries have decided to help alleviate. It's no wonder why Miss Hill's bravery, at 21 years old, mind you, has been a source of inspiration for so many females, inspiration to follow their hearts and intuition

when looking into the face of financial, emotional, and social obstacles, to empower them to bear those burdens if they so choose. Ms. Hill recently reflected on Two Zion's 20-plus-year legacy in a blog post she wrote in August of 2018. Quote, Two-Zion gave encouragement to women during challenging pregnancies. There are children who are given a chance at life because their mothers experienced moral and emotional support through this song, unquote.

Ms. Education's recording supervisor, Commissioner Gordon, shared one such story while on tour with Miss Hill in 1999. I was by the soundboard, the place had cleared out, and this little girl, well, I feel a little girl, but she was about 16, maybe 16, 17, came up to me and asked me, was Lauren still there? And I said, well, no, I don't think so. I think she's probably gone.

I said, what can I do for you? And then she opens up, she has a poster rolled up. She opens up the poster, and on the poster is a picture of a baby, and it says, thank you, Lauren, and some words about, you know, that basically this was, like, Lauren's godchild. So she begins to tell me the story that she got pregnant, you know, in a situation that wasn't really a great situation, a young girl, and got into it, but, and was afraid to speak to her mother about it,

was gonna have an abortion. And the song, Zion actually, you know, listening to the song and made her feel like, okay, she needs to talk to her mom about it and see, you know, is this the right thing? And a mother actually, you know, spoke to her, and she decided to keep the baby, and she was really, really happy.

And she was showing the media picture to give, the poster to give to Lauren to say, hey, you know, if it wasn't for her in this song, that this child wouldn't have been here. So, that was really, I mean, it was a beautiful little baby too. So deep. Yeah, it was really deep.

We can only imagine the thousands of stories similar to this one, the thousands of women who found inspiration from Miss Hill's willingness to bear her soul so openly onto Zion. Twenty-plus years since its conception, the song remains today a cultural treasure, a timeless anthem of a woman's autonomy, a declaration of resistance to the status quo, a thoughtful rumination on the idea of choice and personal freedom, and perhaps most importantly, an unbridled expression of the everlasting strength of a mother's love. First of all, I don't think that you could have a child and not have your entire world change completely.

You know, my life is totally different from what it was when I was, you know, 20, 21 years old, you know, on the road by myself, you know, without a family to think about. It humbles you, but at the same time, it gives you the greatest confidence in the world. You know what I mean? It's kind of hard to explain. It's kind of hard to articulate this, you know, if you don't have children. But, you know, it makes you feel this big and this big, you know, all at the same time, you know, because you realize that it's such a gift from God and that you should be humble.

You know what I mean? You know that he's giving you this blessing to treasure. But at the same time, you know, you also know that I'm a woman and I brought this life into the world. And, you know, God chose me to have this child and it's a huge strengthening thing. So, you know, there were things, believe it or not, that I might have been afraid to say, you know, before my children. But now I know that I have the strength and the confidence to say the truth, you know, because, you know, I have this beautiful blessing. You know, they also motivate me, you know, that great inspiration. You know, I write songs about my children because every day they do something that inspires me to do that.

And, you know, I feel very blessed, you know, and very humbled by both of my children. And I'm very thankful.