DIGITAL ILLUSTRATION GALLERY
ACOUSTIC REBEL
Acoustic Rebel, Valerie Caesar, 2026.
I remember when Lauryn Hill’s live MTV Unplugged set dropped. It was on the heels of all the fanfare surrounding her debut solo album: “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill,” in which she affirmed her superior status and title of the Queen of Hip Hop, and after her verses on the Fugees albums killed us all softly.
The set was “controversial” because it defied the expectations that the previous works had set — that Lauryn would be rapping, that the production would be layered, poppy, and complex, rife with the R&B samples and the street wise, boom bap instrumentation that we’d come to know and love on those prior albums. L. Boogie.
Instead, Miss Lauryn Hill stepped onto the small, dark stage in a simple denim jacket, and her small, dark head was shorn of its iconic lion’s mane of locks, and replaced with a simple silk scarf and billed baseball cap. In place of a gleaming microphone, she sat on a stool, holding an acoustic guitar. The set to follow was spare, humble, haunting, and piercing with truths as simple as proverbs. At times, her voice cracked. In others, it was heavy with tears. The performance was personal, political and prophetic. I was rapt.
In a world in which pop culture and predictability is the safest bet, and authenticity is the biggest threat, the reception was what you might expect. But it’s a badge of most masterworks that they are ahead of their time, and their raw power is frightening to the average person.
Anyway, this spare and humble pastel piece of an acoustic guitar is inspired by Lauryn Hill’s performance on that day in 2002. I’m posting the A Closer Look video I shared below up here too, because I really hope you watch it — not only to see the illustration of Acoustic Rebel being made, and in closer detail, but also to hear the first few precious seconds of “I Find It Hard To Say (Rebel).” It’s that initial intake of breath for me.
A CLOSER LOOK
Watch this short video at the full screen setting to hear the music paired with Acoustic Rebel, and to view it in closer detail.