HTM Editorial: Crazy Genius Syndrome? – Lauryn Hill, D’Angelo, Amy Winehouse, and Dave Chappelle

What the hell happens when the true artists get on? Seems like the best artists suffer from what we call Crazy Genius Syndrome. As soon as an artist is about to reach their full potential, they go crazy and disappear. Lauryn Hill seems to have lost her mind. D’Angelo is only in the media for arrests in last ten years. Amy Winehouse fluctuates between getting high and her ex’s drama. And as I always ask, Where the Hell is Dave Chappelle??? Point is, seems like when highly original movement changing talent comes about they all vanish or burn out quickly.

I found a couple of exceptions to this rule. Jay-Z seems to be impervious to this Crazy Genius Syndrome. I believe the only difference between Jay-Z and the fore mentioned geniuses is that he was always the owner and sole control of his career. As he stated, “Every deal I ever made said President”.  He always had a team around him like Dame, Biggs or whomever to deal with the business end of things. The difference is, he did what he wanted to do as an artist. He never had to change course because the label thought he going in the wrong direction. Don’t get me wrong Jay-Z definitely changed, and to some unrecognizable from the days of Reasonable Doubt. But all his decisions to change seem to have a rhythm to them.

Now back to the other geniuses. Let’s start with Lauryn Hill. When she dropped her first and only solo CD, she said a line that sticks out “All I wanted was to sell 500 thousand and be a ghetto superstar”. She moved close to that amount in the first week of sales. She was being pulled in many different directions. She already had strained relations with the other members of the Fugees after a failed affair with leader WyClef Jean when her CD dropped. Soon after the band members who played on the Miseducation of Lauryn HillCD sued her for not giving them proper production credit on the album. After that she married Rohan Marley (son of Bob Marley) and started popping out babies on a regular. From there she seemed to be more and more eccentric. She became reclusive. She had what seemed to be nervous breakdown when she tried to prove herself as a musician on MTV Unplugged. Instead of opting for the ordinary formula of a band, Hill instead strummed limited notes on an acoustic guitar. She was saying that she taught herself how to play. All the songs sounded the similar. She even shed tears during the performance. As the pressure seemed to become stronger, that was the last we heard from her musically, with the exception of a few guest spots and a handful of performances. 

Next on the list is D’Angelo. From his debut Brown Sugar to his highly successful follow up Voodoo, D’Angelo seemed to have the world in his hand. The Voodoo tour was one of the best concerts I had ever been to. He seemed to give the crowd everything he had. He had even started to work on a live recorded CD. Only one song was ever heard, a remake of Can’t Hide Love by Earth, Wind and Fire. He also released a live video for “Send It On”. He made a statement along the lines of not enjoying living in New Jersey/New York, and that he wanted to move back to Richmond, Va (his hometown).  After going M.I.A. for a while, we heard from D’Angelo in the news for his run in’s with the Richmond police department. Fast forward about ten years, and we still have not gotten a third CD for D’Angelo. Last I heard he was in studio supposedly recording. Then he made headlines again for solicitation of a female police officer in NY. He has to be one the most talent singers of the early 2000’s. Again what seemed to be Crazy Genius Syndrome kicked in and we are still waiting for singer to return.

One of the more sad stories where Crazy Genius Syndrome has claimed the career of an artist would be Amy Winehouse. Amy has to be one of my most favorite singers in the game.  From her debut Frank to Back to Black, she filled the gap left open by Lauryn Hill. When I found her music, I was as happy as when Jay Electronicapicked up the slack that was left behind with the death of the Notorious one. Amy Winehouse has now become a train wreck to watch. She has been in and out of court over assaults, divorce and drug use. News stories have been posted about her being video recorded getting high and acting crazy. She put together some of the greatest music of this decade, but before she was truly recognized for it, she was already spinning out of control. Her buzz is suspended in mid air while fans wait to see if there will ever be a third CD from the songstress. She, like D’Angelo is in the news more for her antics than her music.

Last and not least is Dave Chapelle. What the hell happened here? Instead of getting to the third season of his highly successful show, he disappeared to Africa. After his disappearance, he came back with the explanation that after signing a 50 million dollar deal with Comedy Central, he was asked to do things that were against beliefs. No real accurate description of what went wrong was ever given. He made comments like “My father told me ‘Name your price in the beginning. If it ever gets more expensive than the price you name, get out of there.’ Thus, Africa.” Then he went on to explain – “The worst thing to call somebody is crazy,” he said. “It’s dismissive. I don’t understand this person so they’re crazy. That’s bull—-. These people are not crazy. They are strong people. Maybe the environment is a little sick.” There have been all sorts of conspiracy theories as to what drove Dave away from the business, but really we still don’t know exactly what it was. He pops up randomly around the country doing comedy sets, but he has been mainly living a reclusive existence. What drives a person to this after such a successful rise? 

I will take a note from Dave and say don’t call any of these people crazy. We may not truly understand what happens behind the scenes. Maybe misunderstood is a better classification. Is it that the business is too much pressure for a genius? Is it that there is some conspiratorial group who makes an Arsenio Hallor Chappelle vanish from the scene for years. We barely ever see Arsenio. After having Louis Farrakhan on his program, his drummer was mysteriously beaten and what was a very successful program went off the air with no explanation. Is there really such a thing as Crazy Genius Syndrome? If not what the hell drives the true artists away? Food for thought

Jason M. Evans

Hotterthanmost Magazine

www.hotterthanmost.com

Short URL: http://hotterthanmost.com/?p=4600

Posted by Jay Billion on 05 02 10. Filed under Featured Articles, HTM News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry