Nearly 30 years after covering a Roberta Flack classic as part of Fugees, Ms. Lauryn Hill honored the late soul musician in an Instagram tribute.

On Tuesday, February 25, one day after Flack passed away at 88, Hill posted a lengthy message about the fallen artist, who Fugees covered on their 1996 single “Killing Me Softly With His Song.” The original version was released in 1973, and Fugees and Flack would perform the song together live in 1996, and the Fugees’ version also won the group a Grammy for Best R&B Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocal.

“Whitney Houston once said to me that Roberta Flack’s voice was one of the purest voices she’d ever heard,” the 8-time Grammy winner wrote. “I grew up scouring the records my parents collected. Ms. Flack was one of their favorites and quite instantly became one of mine as soon as I was exposed to her.”

Hill went on to call Flack “cool and intelligent, gentle and yet militant,” noting that Flack’s songs like “Compared to What” and “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” “fascinated” her for their “beauty and sophistication.” 

“Ms. Flack was an artist, a singer-songwriter, a pianist and composer who moved me and showed me through her own creative choices and standards what else was possible in the idiom of Soul.”

On “Killing Me Softly,” Hill said that Flack “didn’t just write” the iconic record but made it so that Fugees entered “household phenomena.” “We wanted to honor the beauty and brilliance of this song and her performance of it to our generation. I will forever be grateful for the sensitivity and delicate power of her Love and Artistry. Rest In Grace Beloved One,” she concluded.

To hear the OG “Killing Me Softly” and nine other Flack staples, check out our essentials list.