Lauryn Hill Album Miseducation Full
Diante Scharsch
The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill is the debut solo studio album by American rapper and singer Lauryn Hill. It was released on August 19, 1998, by Ruffhouse Records and Columbia Records. Recorded after the Fugees embarked on a hiatus, the album was almost entirely written and produced by Hill. It is a concept album about learning love, with lyrical themes encompassing relationship complexities, interpersonal conflicts, motherhood, and faith. Predominantly a neo soul and R&B record, it incorporates genres such as hip hop, reggae, and soul, and features guest appearances from Carlos Santana, Mary J. Blige, and D'Angelo.
After touring with the Fugees, Hill became involved in a romantic relationship with Jamaican entrepreneur Rohan Marley, and shortly after, became pregnant with their first child. The pregnancy, as well as other circumstances in her life, inspired Hill to create a solo album. Recording sessions for The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill took place from September 1997 to June 1998, initially in New York and New Jersey, before relocating to the Tuff Gong Studios in Kingston, as Hill collaborated with a group of musicians known as New Ark in writing and producing the songs. Gordon "Commissioner Gordon" Williams supervised the project, while Che Pope and James Poyser also contributed to a majority of the tracks. Hill strived to differentiate her musical style from that of the Fugees, and wrote songs discussing the turmoil within the group. As she refrained from following mainstream music trends and sounding overproduced, live instruments were heavily incorporated into the recordings.
The success of The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill propelled Hill to global prominence, and contributed to bringing hip hop and neo soul to the forefront of popular music. New Ark, however, felt Hill and her record labels did not properly credit them for their contributions, and filed a lawsuit, which was settled out of court in 2001. Regardless of the controversy, various critics have exalted the album as one of the best of its era and of all time, due to its tremendous influence on other artists and ubiquitous impact on the music industry. In addition, it has been selected for inclusion at a multitude of cultural institutions. The album eventually went on to be certified diamond by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), for 10 million units consumed in the US. With over 20 million copies sold worldwide, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill is among the best-selling albums of all time. Despite its immense success and achievements, it remains Hill's sole studio album.
"When some women are pregnant, their hair and their nails grow, but for me it was my mind and ability to create. I had the desire to write in a capacity that I hadn't done in a while. I don't know if it's a hormonal or emotional thing ... I was very in touch with my feelings at the time."
In 1996, Lauryn Hill met Rohan Marley, son of Bob Marley, while touring as a member of the Fugees, in support of their widely successful second studio album The Score. Hill and Marley gradually formed a close relationship, and during the tour, Hill became pregnant with his child.[5] After contributing to fellow Fugees member Wyclef Jean's solo debut Wyclef Jean Presents The Carnival (1997), Hill refrained from touring and recording due to her pregnancy and cases of writer's block.[6][7] However, circumstances in her life stimulated her to record a solo album, having already expressed the desire to do so and depart from the Fugees. She credited her pregnancy for rejuvenating her songwriting; according to her then-manager Jayson Jackson, the songwriting was prompted by Wendy Williams revealing Hill's pregnancy on her radio show and the intense media scrutiny over the identity of the child's father, as Hill had never publicized her relationship with Marley prior to the pregnancy.[8]
Of the early writing process, Hill said: "Every time I got hurt, every time I was disappointed, every time I learned, I just wrote a song."[9] While inspired, Hill wrote over 30 songs in her attic studio in South Orange, New Jersey.[7] Many of these songs drew upon the turbulence in the Fugees, as well as past love experiences.[10] In the summer of 1997, as Hill was due to give birth to her first child, she was requested to write a song for gospel musician CeCe Winans.[7] Several months later, she went to Detroit to work with soul singer Aretha Franklin, writing and producing her single "A Rose Is Still a Rose". Franklin would later have Hill direct the song's music video.[11] Shortly after this, Hill did writing work for Whitney Houston.[12] Having written songs for artists in gospel, hip hop, and R&B, she drew on these influences and experiences to record The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill.[13]
Throughout most of the initial sessions, Hill simultaneously recorded at multiple locations throughout New York City and New Jersey; even parts of a single song were recorded at multiple studios.[21] Furthermore, "Final Hour" was partly recorded at the Metropolis Studio in London.[1] The majority of The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, however, was recorded at Tuff Gong, the studio built by Bob Marley, in Kingston, Jamaica,[3] where the album would be completed in June 1998.[2] Regarding the shift in environment, Hill stated: "When I started recording in New York and New Jersey, lots of people were talking to me about going different routes. I could feel people up in my face, and I was picking up on bad vibes. I wanted a place where there was good vibes, where I was among family, and it was Tuff Gong."[22] Numerous members of the Marley family were present in the studio during the recording sessions, among them Julian Marley, who contributed with guitar elements to "Forgive Them Father".[3] In an interview, recording engineer Gordon "Commissioner Gordon" Williams recalled the recording of "Lost Ones", stating: "It was our first morning in Jamaica and I saw all of these kids gathered around Lauryn, screaming and dancing. Lauryn was in the living room next to the studio with about fifteen Marley grandchildren around her, the children of Ziggy, and Stephen, and Julian, and she starts singing this rap verse, and all the kids start repeating the last word of each line, chiming in very spontaneously because they were so into the song."[23]
The album title was inspired by Sonny Carson's autobiographical novel The Education of Sonny Carson and its 1974 film adaptation; Hill's collaborators urged a more "self-deprecating" title,[8] in reference to Carter G. Woodson's 1933 book The Mis-Education of the Negro.[24]
Though The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill was largely a collaborative work between Hill and New Ark, there was "label pressure to do the Prince thing", wherein all tracks would be credited as written and produced by the artist with little outside help.[8] While recording the album, Hill was against the idea of creating documentation defining each musician's role.[17]
In November 1998, New Ark filed a 50-page lawsuit against Hill, her management and her record label, stating that Hill "used their songs and production skills, but failed to properly credit them for the work."[25] New Ark demanded writing credits for 13 of the album's 14 tracks, excluding "To Zion", alongside monetary reimbursement.[26] The musicians claimed to be the primary songwriters on two tracks, and major contributors on others, though Gordon Williams, the album's mixer and engineer, described the project as a "powerfully personal effort by Hill ... It was definitely her vision."[27] Audio engineer Tony Prendatt, who also worked on the album, defended Hill, with a statement saying "Lauryn's genius is her own".[28] In response to the lawsuit, Hill claimed that New Ark took advantage of her success.[29] The suit was eventually settled out of court in February 2001, for a reported $5 million.[8][30] While Pope was not involved in the lawsuit, he claimed he solely produced "To Zion", despite being merely credited as a co-producer, and contemplated filing a lawsuit of his own but ultimately abandoned the idea.[8]
The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill is considered a neo soul album, according to Christopher John Farley of Time[31] and Rhapsody writer Mosi Reeves;[32] Complex magazine refers to it more generally as R&B.[33] Its musical styles emerge from genres such as soul, hip hop, and reggae,[34] with some songs based in hip hop soul, according to the Encyclopedia of African American Music (2010).[35] Hill said that she "didn't want to come out with a [Fugees] type of sound", but create "something that was uniquely and very clearly a Lauryn Hill album."[20] She also said that she did not intend for the album's sound to be commercially appealing: "There's too much pressure to have hits these days. Artists are watching Billboard instead of exploring themselves. Look at someone like Aretha, she didn't hit with her first album, but she was able to grow up and find herself. I wanted to make honest music. I don't like things to be too perfect, or too polished. People may criticize me for that, but I grew up listening to Al Green and Sam Cooke. When they hit a high note, you actually felt it."[36] Much of Hill's lyrics dealt with motherhood, the Fugees, reminiscence, love, heartbreak, and God,[37] with multiple critics characterizing the album as a progressive rap work due to its lyricism.[38][39] Commenting on the album's gospel content, Hill revealed that she frequently read the Bible, from which she sought inspiration.[40] Meanwhile, tracks such as "Lost Ones", "Ex-Factor", "Superstar", and "Forgive Them Father" were widely speculated as direct attacks at fellow Fugees members Jean and Pras.[41][8] While mostly in English, "Lost Ones" and "Forgive Them Father" both feature singing and rapping in patois, the common dialect in Jamaica.[42][43]
The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill opens with a spoken-word intro, featuring Baraka as the teacher taking attendance, with Hill as the sole student absent from the class.[47] "Lost Ones" fuses hip hop with reggae, and is built on tight snares embellished with spirited toasting and scratching.[46][48] Its hook interpolates Sister Nancy's "Bam Bam".[46] Despite its sound, Hill defined the song as a gospel track due to its lyrical content, which centers on the concept of karma.[49] While "Lost Ones" discusses the dissolution of Hill's business relationship with Jean, "Ex-Factor" addresses the end of their personal one.[46] A 1960s-influenced soul track received comparisons to Minnie Riperton and Aretha Franklin. It replays elements of Wu-Tang Clan's "Can It Be All So Simple", and ends with a guitar solo by Johari Newton.[50] "To Zion", among the more introspective tracks on the album, spoke about how Hill's family comes before her career,[44] and her decision to have her first child, even though many at the time encouraged her to terminate the pregnancy, so as not to conflict with her burgeoning career.[8] Featuring Carlos Santana, it is an acoustic Spanish guitar-driven hip hop track.[51][48] Musically a "short trip through black music", "Doo Wop (That Thing)" fuses doo-wop harmonies, soul horns, contemporary hip hop, and turntable work before transitioning into an R&B-styled chorus. Lyrically, it advises women to value themselves by not engaging in relationships with deceitful men, or succumbing to superficial trends, while criticizing men attempting to portray a false lifestyle of affluence and power.[52]
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