- Dinner with My Darling · 1996
- The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill · 1998
- The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill · 1998
- The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill · 1998
- The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill · 1998
- MTV Unplugged No. 2.0 · 2002
- The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill · 1998
- The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill · 1998
- The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill · 1998
- The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill · 1998
- The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill · 1998
- The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill · 1998
- The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill · 1998
Essential Albums
- Lauryn Hill’s debut album was forged in emotional fire. After seven years as the voice of the politically cogent, critically acclaimed hip-hop trio Fugees—and in the aftermath of a protracted, tumultuous relationship with bandmate Wyclef Jean—Hill set out to document a period of major life transitions, including the slow erosion of the group she’d been with since high school. With that trauma came new beginnings: Hill was inspired by the physical and mental transitions of pregnancy, as well as the recent birth of Zion, her first child with Rohan Marley. This potent emotional crossroads led to 1998’s The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, Hill’s sole solo studio album, and one of the rawest albums ever created in hip-hop. To this day, it remains an artistic beacon for musicians across genre—and a document of the moment in which the whole world recognised Hill’s once-in-a-generation talents. Miseducation’s opening track, in which a teacher announces a classroom roll call—and finds that Hill is absent—speaks to the album’s thesis: That the most crucial lessons of Hill’s life were the kind that could only be learned through lived experience. “When I thought I was [at] my most wise, I was really not wise at all,” she said in an interview two years after the album’s release. “In my humility, and in those places that most people wouldn’t expect a lesson to come from, that’s where I learned so much.” As Hill weaved through painful eviscerations of an ex—which, even at the time, were understood to be directed at Jean—she redefined the way gritty, sharp rapping and lavish R&B harmonies could fuse together in an era of nearly catholic separation between the two genres. (Even three years after Method Man and Mary J. Blige’s landmark “All I Need” remix, hardcore rap was still largely teeming with misogyny, and R&B was seen as a softer, more feminine pursuit.) But the DNA of these songs, and a key to their endurance, draws on a classic Motown/Stax sound, one that showcases Hill’s immaculate vocal approach: The layered “Doo Wop (That Thing)” won Hill two of the five Grammys she took home in 1999—a validation of the freshness of her sound, as well as the way her music spoke to the emergent feminism of the Hip-Hop Generation. Miseducation is also proof that pure intention and unflinching emotional truth can be a path to deliverance unto itself. As Hill raps on the politically charged koan “Everything Is Everything”: “My practice extending across the atlas/I begat this.”
Albums
Artist Playlists
- Her single solo studio album established her has a neo-soul visionary.
- Soul, gospel and hip-hop power from former Fugees admirers and descendants.
- Listen to the hits performed on their blockbuster tour.
Singles & EPs
Live Albums
Appears On
- Teyana Taylor
- Kool & The Gang
- Kool & The Gang featuring Lauryn Hill
More To Hear
- A little bit of “Doo Wop” helped her make history.
- Female legends and pioneers, played back-to-back.
- A full and frank discussion on all things baby-related.
- Olivia Rose, Raye, and Sian Anderson guest.
- Olivia Rose, Raye, and Sian Anderson guest.
- The Grammy nominee on her music and touring with Lauryn Hill.
- A downbeat selection, plus AJ Tracey previews his debut album.
About Lauryn Hill
Lauryn Hill is rap’s greatest “what if” story. Born in East Orange, New Jersey, in 1975, Hill befriended fellow musicians Prakazrel “Pras” Michel and Wyclef Jean, and in 1990 they formed a group called Tranzlator Crew—soon to be known as the Fugees. Though she was the act’s de facto singer, Hill found inspiration in the cultural activism of Ice Cube and Eazy E, and her gifts as both a rapper and a world-class singer were on abundant display in the band’s 1996 version of Roberta Flack's “Killing Me Softly”. The Grammy Award-winning single anchored the Fugees’ chart-topping second album, The Score, and while it was the group’s last record together, it was merely the beginning of Hill’s story. In 1998, she released her debut solo album, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, which amply proved that female MCs shouldn’t be treated as second-class citizens in the rap industry’s hierarchy. Her flow was relentless yet inviting, a mix of swagger and sway. Hill changed the game not just for women in rap but for rap in general: Miseducation was the first rap album to ever win Album of the Year at the Grammys. But after that monumental achievement, Hill effectively turned into the J.D. Salinger of hip-hop, retreating into a life of seclusion from which she has rarely returned. Her divisive MTV Unplugged set from 2002 saw Hill eschew hip-hop almost entirely, abandoning her deeply powerful boom-bap beats in favour of acoustic folk renditions of her songs. Yet her legacy lives on in those who have followed: There would be no Cardi B, no Nicki Minaj without Lauryn Hill, and she’s been sampled by hip-hop royalty like Drake, Meek Mill and J. Cole. Regardless of how often or what she performs, Hill's pulse will always be heard within hip-hop.
- HOMETOWN
- East Orange, NJ, United States
- BORN
- 26 maj 1975
- GENRE
- R&B/Soul