Lauryn Hill's debut album, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, was a massive commercial and cultural success that helped bring a revolution of hip hop into households across the world. The album's impact and critical acclaim are undisputed. It has received numerous prestigious accolades including 5 Grammys, being archived in the Library of Congress and Smithsonian, and ranking #1 on Apple Music's 100 Best Albums list.
What better album to start a series on perfect albums? This series will explore albums that I personally find to be perfect. That criteria may shift from time to time, but generally these albums will not just be a collection of good songs, but a complete work of art that can be explored from beginning to end as an entire experience. Many of them also have a personal bias based on my own experience, and hopefully my love for these albums will show through and help to excite you to explore them if you haven't already or see them in a new light if you are already familiar with them.
Commercially, Miseducation has achieved diamond certification (10 million units) in the US and sold over 20 million copies worldwide. Despite these remarkable achievements it remains Lauryn Hill's only studio album. This album is widely considered one of the most influential records of its era and continues to be celebrated for its impact on the music industry and future artists.
The album kicks off with a classroom roll call that sets the tone for the entire experience. While we are presented with a teacher and students, this isn't a discussion about the typical subjects you would expect in school. Miseducation isn't about math and science, it's about love. Throughout the album we return to the classroom where we get insightful and sometimes comedic takes on love from the children involved. The teacher was actually an 8th grade teacher at the time, Ras Baraka, who is the current mayor of Newark, New Jersey.
But we quickly leave the children and the classroom with the aggressive introduction to Lauryn Hill as a solo force on Lost one.
Hill explodes with one of the most raw songs on the album. The message is clear and purposefully placed at the start; she is done with those who wronged her and it is ultimately their loss.
Throughout the album, Hill shows real humanity as she shifts fluidly between vulnerability and authority. Songs like “Ex-Factor” expose raw wounds of heartbreak with almost unbearable honesty, while “To Zion” is a love letter to her son that redefined what hip hop and R&B could carry as subject matter. Hill dives deeply into the many aspects of the different types of love that can cause so much pain and so much beauty. Partnership, romance, parenthood, community and God are all explored as we enjoy Hill's lyrical lectures.
As an MC, tracks like “Superstar” and “Final Hour” allow Hill to flex her lyrical dexterity. She doesn't focus on individual beefs and bravado, but instead calls out the entire recording industry with stern warnings against the shallow pursuit of fame.
When this album was released, Doo Wop (That Thing)
was immediately on repeat on the radio and MTV. I loved the juxtaposition presented in the video of a thirty year period where the same sentiments are just repeated with new fashions. The song presents a warning so timeless that you could create the video again today where we still see so many that are only about that thing.
My favorite track on the album has to be the beautiful duet with D'Angelo, Nothing Even Matters.
There are few songs that truly capture that feeling where the entire world melts away and the moment becomes as small as just you and your partner there, together. If you find a love that feels as smooth as this song don't ever let it go.
An immediate success of this magnitude had us all wanting more. But if there is one thing to learn from Lauryn Hill, it is gratitude. Be grateful for those perfect moments and enjoy them. Don't be greedy, don't be insatiable, just enjoy the gifts you've received and be grateful. We may never get another album from Lauryn Hill, but the whole world should be grateful that we get to enjoy something so perfect. Lauryn Hill is a person and no matter how bad we wish we had more, she doesn't owe us anything. There are very few of us that will ever produce a single thing as astonishing as The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill.
But while the art we make can achieve levels of beauty that I would call perfection, it is important to remember there are no perfect people. There has been no lack of controversy between the other contributors on the album and Lauryn Hill. These have been settled in court and Hill has responded in a lengthy post explaining her experience.
I saw Lauryn Hill play at the House of Blues in Chicago in 2017 and was surprised to hear drastic rearrangements of the recordings that were so burned in my mind. When I learned more about Lauryn Hill the person as I tried to understand different aspects of this album for this post, I realized I should have never had any expectations. Lauryn Hill has consistently pushed against expectations both in her career and in the lyrical content of this very album. She was never satisfied with the commercial aspects of the recording industry and how limiting they could be for artists. Her push to make something new, and different, and authentic to herself may be what makes this album truly perfect.