Despite only releasing a single solo album, Lauryn Hill is frequently cited as one of the greatest rappers of all time. From her work in the Fugees in the 1990s to a string of more recent singles, Hill has created her own melodic blend of hip-hop, R&B, soul, and reggae that no other artist has been able to execute so flawlessly. Nowhere else is her talent more evident than on her 1998 solo album, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill.
Stressed from the tension enveloping the Fugees because of her personal conflicts with Wyclef Jean, Lauryn Hill retreated to the studio to create her first and only solo studio album. Throughout the album, she sorts through her feelings regarding her impending motherhood, romantic relationships, and religion, using the framing story of a group of young students having a discussion on the meaning of love with their teacher.
After a short intro depicting the teacher taking roll-call and finding Hill absent, the album dives into its first track, “Lost Ones”. The song is a biting rap track aimed at Wyclef Jean, her bandmate and ex-boyfriend. On top of a classic 90s boom-bap drum lap, Hill accuses Jean of changing after attaining success, singing: “You might win some, but you really lost one…When it’s all done, did you really gain from/What you done?”. She places all the blame for their failed relationship on him without any personal introspection. The recurring classroom setting returns at the end of the track, as the children discuss what they associate with love. Reflecting Lauryn’s one-sided view of love at this point, the students think of things like Titanic and Romeo and Juliet when confronted with the idea of love.
Hill’s naivety continues on the next track, the smooth R&B song “Ex-Factor”, as she asks Jean: “Tell me who I have to be/To get some reciprocity”. She still has a very limited view of relationships, viewing fault as one-sided and love as something to be forced.
She begins to grow on the next track, “To Zion”, as she examines a different type of love: motherly love. Moving past Wyclef Jean, she sings to her unborn son, Zion, that she has “…never been in love like this before” over top of Carlos Santana’s subtle finger-style guitar licks. Later in the track, the teacher in the skit asks his students about their personal definitions of love. Reflecting Lauryn’s growing views on what love means, one of the students believes that love is “willingness to do everything for that person”.
On the appropriately titled “Doo Wop”, Lauryn returns to the subject of romance, warning the audience to be wary of exploitation in a relationship. Singing: “[Guys/Girls] you know you’d better watch out/Some [girls/guys] are only about/That thing,” she leaves the subject of exploitation up to interpretation; this makes the song all the more universal as “that thing” could refer to a multitude of ideas, be it money, sex, influence, or something else. This line could also relate to Hill’s personal heartbreaks, revealing that she has been exploited for many different things in the past. In the ending skit, Hill shows personal growth when she contradicts her previous desire to change herself for her love of Wyclef Jean in “Ex-Factor” by saying that: “[When you’re in love] you’re taking that person for what he or she is no matter what he or she look like or no matter what he or she do”.
After reflecting on fame on “Superstar”, Lauryn Hill comes to a crucial conclusion on “Final Hour”. Despite shifting the blame and degrading others in early tracks of the album, Hill realizes that “You can get the money, you can get the power/But keep your eyes on the Final Hour.” Being a Christian, Hill believes there will be a day of judgment when God determines her fate based on how she lived her life. She decides to devote her life to something more substantial than lingering on past relationships and obtaining wealth, and she hopes to live a life based on morals.
On the following track, “When It Hurts So Bad”, Lauryn reveals that what she had with Wyclef was not true love, singing: “But how could this be love/And make me feel so bad?” Similar notions are reflected in the skit at the end of the track, as one of the students says, “It’s like people think they love somebody when they really don’t love somebody”. Hill further elaborates on this revelation in the next track, “I Used To Love Him”, when she sings: “He was the ocean and I was the sand/He stole my heart like a thief in the night”. She further embraces her Christian faith on “Forgive Them Father”, as she asks God to forgive those who have wronged her, including Wyclef Jean: “Forgive them, Father, for/They know now what they do”. Hill has finally fully moved past her failed relationships and is looking towards forgiveness and the future.
In the next track, “Every Ghetto, Every City”, Hill reminisces on her youth growing up in New Jersey. She remarks that throughout her travels touring around the world: “Every ghetto, every city/And suburban place I been/Make me recall my days in New Jerusalem”.
After describing her matured view on love with D’Angelo in “Nothing Even Matters” and learning to accept what she cannot change on “Everything is Everything”, the final track of the album begins: “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill”. In this majestically orchestrated ballad, Hill synthesizes the revelations she’s had across the album, singing, “…Every time I try to be, what someone else has thought of me/So caught up, I wasn’t able to achieve” and: “And deep in my heart, the answer it was in me/And I made up my mind to define my own destiny”. Ultimately, she decides to stop dwelling on the past and conforming to others’ expectations and instead, forge her own path ahead.
The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill blends soul, R&B, and hip-hop in a way that no other album has ever been able to replicate. The auburn-tinged instrumentals gorgeously compliment Hill’s incredibly poetic and layered lyrics, which effortlessly tell an engrossing story of self-improvement and self-love. While this is Lauryn Hill’s only solo studio album, it certainly cemented her as one of the most talented rapper-singers of all time. At once staggeringly universal and incredibly intimate, it is as beautiful an ode to love and growth as one could ask for.
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Sources:
https://www.nme.com/photos/greatest-rappers-ever-voted-for-by-you-1430325
https://genius.com/albums/Lauryn-hill/The-miseducation-of-lauryn-hill