Polls: Do you believe in The Great Lauryn Hill Comeback of 2010?

With her NPR interview earlier this week, did Lauryn Hill take her first steps on the comeback trail? (Brendon Thorne/Getty Images)

By Allison Stewart

Before she resurfaced earlier this week, Lauryn Hill had become a pop Sasquatch, appearing in public so infrequently she made Sly Stone seem like Heidi Montag. Hill hasn't released a studio album since '98's vaunted "The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill," and has made only sporadic live appearances throughout the '00s.

For more than ten years, rumors about Hill have flown. Among the most popular: (A) Hill is a normal, semi-retired mom raising her kids in the North Jersey suburbs, (B) She's the world's most painstaking perfectionist, currently laboring on a "Miseducation" follow-up, (C) She has fallen under the thrall of a spiritual advisor-slash-swami, and (D) She suffers from bipolar disorder, a theory lent credence by an interview with her former Fugee-mate Wyclef Jean. "You can't get angry with someone who's sick," he faux-sympathetically told Rolling Stone a few years back.

Granting a rare interview to NPR earlier this the week, Hill did little to clear up the enduring mysteries of the past decade. "[I] think it's just time. I'm starting to get excited again," she said, dangling the possibility of a new album across the airwaves. How Hill, who last released an album during the Clinton administration and would be approaching forty when/if she ever released another, would handle such a radically different cultural landscape -- and how it would handle her -- are open questions.

Did the interview give you faith in a full blown Lauryn Hill comeback? Will you shell out to see her perform at the Rock The Bells tour at Merriweather Post Pavilion in August? Vote in our poll below.