Lauryn Hill is a trooper. You may think that the Fugee who sold 17 million copies of The Score - the most successful hip-hop album of all time - in 1996 would be somewhat reticent when it comes to promotional duties for any follow-up project. Not at all: her recent London trip had her talking to the press from early morning until late evening, heading off each night to a recording studio to tidy up the loose ends on The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill, her forthcoming solo album, and back on the promotional rounds the following morning. It's quite a routine, especially when she has a year-old son, Zion, in tow.

"My work ethic is kind of nuts," she says. "But I've been like this a long time. I was the type of kid who did everything; I was playing basketball, running track, trying everything out. Then when I met Pras and Wyclef (the other Fugees), they were just as bad as I was. It wasn't as if I met someone who was going to pull me down - if anything, we encouraged each other to work harder. Twelve-hour days? That sounds realistic."

You could apply this rationale to each member of the Fugees. Instead of chilling out, winding down and spending the mad money they have earned, each has begun to nurture a solo career. With Wyclef Jean claiming Top Five positions for his Gone Till November single and The Carnival album and Pras enjoying a worldwide smash with Ghetto Superstar from his forthcoming solo set, Lauryn Hill seems somewhat slower off the blocks by comparison. After all, if the whispers during The Score campaign were to believed, she was the one tagged for solo success.

However, if you're expecting The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill to mirror the sound of The Fugees' breakthrough album, you'll be in for a surprise. Instead of the commercial plush of Killing Me Softly and Ready Or Not, there's a tough urban rub to the album, showcasing a rapper who is forging her own path between the commercial Puff Daddy camp on one side and the more for-real conscience of the new underground on the other. An intriguing smattering of streamlined hip-hop and bluesy soul, tracks like Lost Ones are meaty and beaty enough to fit with ease on to a Funkmaster Flex mix-tape while the first single, Doo Wop, is a robust hip-hop charmer which will knock your socks off.

This, Hill asserts, is where she's at right now. "It may be a departure from what the Fugees are about, but I see it as more of an extension of the identity that we established together. This is where my head is right now. I went in so far and experienced so much with The Score that this is, in some ways, a reaction to it. I wasn't looking for perfection, I was looking for feeling; I didn't aim to write songs which were perfect and beautifully created, I wanted people to feel them. Even the style of production is like that. I didn't want to crunch the music into a box and ruin that special feel. I could say that the songs are me readjusting to what happened over the last few years - but it was nothing as contrived as that. I purposely wanted this to be different. I didn't want to make another 10 Killing Me Softlys."

Yet there is also a cover version tucked away here. Can't Take My Eyes Off You is placed almost an afterthought at the end of the album, yet sounds just as radio-friendly as that Roberta Flack tune. "I hadn't intended to have a cover on the album at all; the record company asked me to put it on there. It was a song that I had done for The Conspiracy Theory score, but it wasn't even on the soundtrack. Someone heard it, took it from the film and started playing it on the radio. It spread right across the States - a song which was never intended for radio play or even release.

"I thought it was kind of funny all right, another cover version taking off like that. Naturally, there was some record company pressure but if I had my way, it wouldn't be on it at all. I want my audience to know that I also write songs and that the Fugees are not a cover band."

For all their commercial success, the Fugees never quite capitulated to the mainstream, something which earned them the respect of their hip-hop peers. "We never made any music which was geared towards radio play," Hill maintains. "It was made for our crowd, the hip-hop crowd. The fact that it became something that commercial audiences could appreciate was cool. It proved that our instincts were right, that the right instinct is your first instinct as opposed to do something more formulaic. Of course, when you have a big success like The Score, people are always going to say `well, you can do it again just like that'. But instead, I wanted to follow my instincts - and this is what you get, songs which are real, personal and honest."

It's obvious that, for her, hip-hop remains a vital link to the source and that she's still a keen observer of what's going on. "It's still a new sound, a new musical form which is constantly changing. There will always be some new person coming up who will change it around completely. No matter how commercial or how watered-down or how meaningless it may be at any time, it just takes one kid to set a trend and put in a whole new direction. And yeah, they're coming."

Away from her own music, Hill doesn't appear to need to rest. A nascent acting career has seen her take roles in Steven Soderbergh's King Of The Hill and the independent release, Restaurant, and star alongside Whoopi Goldberg in Sister Act 2. "Acting is cool," she says. "When I make music, I see the visuals and images. I've started my own production company to help the process so I'm looking out for some dope talent to work with." She also wrote and produced A Rose Is Still A Rose, the title track on Aretha Franklin's last album. "I don't how anyone can appreciate soul music without appreciating Aretha Franklin - or even appreciate music in general without appreciating Aretha. I considered it to be a honour to be in the studio with her, having her sing a song I wrote."

Add her Camp Hill (a two-week camp for disadvantaged kids in New York) and Refugee Project organisations to this list, and it's little wonder that many observers regard another Fugees album as a more possible than probable event at present. And if Hill takes the lead role she has been offered in Joel Schumacher's mooted film version of the Broadway hit Dreamgirls, there will be even less time for the group.

"We don't talk as regularly as we should," Hill concedes. "A lot of that has to do with the fact that for the first time in seven years, we all have individual lives, we're not living on top of each other. Pras came to my video shoot the other day and he's busy with his record. I'm sure we'll regroup and do another record. Like, I had no plans to do a solo record but next thing I knew, wham, there was this album called The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill. After The Score, I was forced to take a break to have my son. That renewed my whole motivation for doing what I do, and probably changed my whole perception of things. You could say it was a blessing in that way."