Lauryn Hill has had a reputation for showing up late to performances for quite some time. Recently, she received bad press for her performance at the 2025 Essence Festival, hitting the stage at 2:30 a.m. – nearly two hours after her scheduled 12:35 a.m. set. Though she was let off the hook, with Essence Festival issuing a statement taking responsiblity for the production, her tardy reputation had already been cemented. However, there’s a silver lining in Ms. Hill moving at her own descretion. For example, Kanye West wouldn’t have gotten the hit “All Falls Down.”
I think we can all agree that Syleena Johnson’s vocals were the icing on the cake. However, she wasn’t her fellow Chicagoan’s first choice.
During an interview with The Breakfast Club, co-host Charlamagne Tha God brought up Ye’s hit, noting that he’d listened to the original version that featured Lauryn Hill’s sample instead of Syleena’s vocals.
Syleena says she was working on her third album, The Flesh, at the time. Ye was the producer on that record and, ironically, was working on The College Dropout in the other room.
“They were going through mixing and mastering,” Syleena says. “I believe it was like a deadline for ‘All Falls Down,’ because I think that was, you know, their already chosen first single. And so, at the end of the night – or it was probably not even night, in the morning – it’s like maybe 4 or 5 o’clock in the morning. He’s like, ‘Come sing on this hook. I’ve been trying out a lot of different singers. I’m up against the deadline, and the clearance for the sample has not come through yet.'”
Syleena went on to explain why Ye was feeling the pressure: the business side of it had to be done correctly, or it could have led to serious legal and financial consequences, such as copyright infringement.
More or less, Syleena admits that she did it on the strength of their Chicago roots. And after she added her sauce, it ultimately gave birth to the hit we know today.
Thank you, Ms. Lauryn Hill – for once, someone celebrates your tardiness.
