Big Freedia’s voice punctuated Drake’s “Nice for What,” and she was, as ever, conspicuously absent from its accompanying video. Lauryn Hill’s voice propelled the song, but her absence is better understood. Going to see the iconoclastic hip-hop legend live is a crapshoot—she might be late, she might cancel at short notice—though thousands will still get tickets, half as a pilgrimage. Last night, she played at New York’s Apollo Theatre, and she arrived a few hours late. But she turned up nonetheless. Halfway through performing “Ex-Factor,” she dropped into Drake’s sample of it and took it in her own direction: “See this is ‘Ex-Factor’ / He took the sample / My shit is classic / Here’s an example,” she sang before rapping about being a “Balenciaga mama.”

Watch the footage at the top of the page and below, and take solace in the fact that, when Lauryn Hill does show up, it rules.

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