Lauryn Hill’s Final Hour
A breakdown of “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill”
My first memory of hearing The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill comes at age 6 when my mom would play “Lost Ones” while cleaning the house early on Sunday morning. The song was about Wyclef Jean who was one of Lauryn Hill’s former bandmates, and lovers. At age 6 I didn’t understand the vulnerability and self reflection this song must have took to write. Now at age 16, I still do not understand exactly what she went through, but I can process what has been said about the situation. “Lost Ones” is the first song after the 47-second intro and this was because Lauryn Hill wanted to show she was serious about this album more than anything else at the time.
The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill is made up of 16 perfectly-crafted songs that make you feel animosity, happiness, heartbreak, loneliness, and basically any other emotion or feeling you can think of. Songs like “Ex-Factor” will make you remember a time when you were deeply in love with someone who was toxic, or didn’t care about you. When Lauryn Hill says,
“As painful as this thing has been, I just can’t be with no one else”
Hill relates to regular people who have been so in love with someone who wasn’t good for them, that they could realize the fault of the other person and still could not change their actions. The guitar solo and background vocals add to the song, elevating its level of emotion and tightening its grip on your attention.
From “Ex-Factor”, Lauryn switches to “To Zion” which is her song dedicated to her first born son, Zion. The song has background singers that do a call and response with Lauryn Hill. The song resembles being in a black church on a Sunday morning.
“Now the joy (Joy)
Of my world (World)
Is in Zion (Is in Zion, is in Zion)”
Lauryn shows her love and appreciation for her first child which is a feeling every mother will experience. As an artist, Lauryn Hill was advised to think about the consequences of having a child. The song shows that she felt a greater importance about giving birth to Zion than worrying about her career.
“ “Lauryn, baby use your head”
But instead I chose to use my heart”
Children are a light in dark times, and Lauryn shows her love for her son in this song. She then flips the script in “Doo Wop,” an upbeat song about sexual culture among young adults. The song became an anthem for women and men collectively.
“How you gonna win when you ain’t right within?”
The point of the song is that men and women alike flex their money even when they don’t have a lot. This leads to problems in relationships because they are built on materialistic things instead of true emotional connection or care. “Doo Wop” is the most listened to song on the album, and was influential for an entire generation of adults. The next song “Superstar” portrays Lauryn’s growth into fame. She sings about how she worked at Foot Locker, and about her first album with the Fugees. The song isn’t full of deep meaning, so I categorize “Superstar” as the calm before the storm that is “Final Hour”.
The first time I ever listened to a breakdown of the bars in this song, I had to pause the video multiple times just to comprehend the genius behind it. The bar:
“Word to Boonie, I make salat like a Sunni”
Lauryn Hill purposefully slurs her words to make it sound like she says “I makes a lot” instead of “I make salat.” She also reminds listeners that there is a bigger problem than just her life in the line:
“And then amend it, every law that ever prevented/ Our survival since our arrival, documented in The Bible/ Like Moses and Aaron, things gon’ change, its apparent”
Lauryn is speaking on the racial inequality and racism that has been present in America since the slave ships first arrived. This line foreshadows an important moment in history when the first black president, Barack Obama, was elected. Lauryn Hill didn’t know that Obama would be elected, but saying “things gon’ change, it’s apparent” shows that she had trust for a better future.
“Forgive Them Father” a song that is reminiscent of “Concrete Jungle” by Bob Marley. Lauryn Hill took the beat, sped it up, added an acoustic guitar and made it her own. The song still has a Jamaican, reggae vibe that shows the influence Bob Marley’s music had on her. “Forgive Them Father” was Lauryn’s expression of her faith. She heavily entrusted Christianity to help her through turmoil such as people trying to control her life and career. The chorus of the song:
“Forgive them, Father, for/ they know not what they do”
This chorus derives from Luke 23:34 which is another example of Lauryn’s strong Christian faith. In this song Lauryn Hill also questions the actions of others, asking why black people always have to be the ones who settle, and why is it that for someone to increase she has to decrease. She sees all of these lousy people making faulty decisions that are only to benefit themselves, instead of trying to benefit both themselves and their counterpart. The last two lines that I find very powerful are:
“That everyday people, they lie to God too
So what makes you think, that they won’t lie to you?”
The point of this phrase is that you can only be accountable for yourself. People lie to God, but God knows everything you do. It would be like saying you didn’t steal candy from a child, while looking at a recording of you stealing from the child. So if someone has the audacity to try and lie to God, they will have no second thought to lie to you.
The final song I want to end on is “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill”. This song captures my full attention every time I listen to it. The simple combination of the piano, organ and strings partnered with Lauryn Hill’s angelic voice make for an admirable work of art. The song only has 18 lines, and it spans for nearly four minutes, but the slow pace lets you understand that she had to find her destiny within herself.
“And every time I try to be, what someone else has thought of me
So caught up, I wasn’t able to achieveBut deep in my heart, the answer it was in me
And I made up my mind to define my own destiny”
I listen to this song religiously because it reminds me that I should do things that make me happy. Freshman year, I didn’t really fit in with a lot of people at school, so I put on a persona that wasn’t truly me. I know my mom also went through a period of time when she wasn’t true to herself, and she said it was painful to live a lie every single day. When she finally was true to herself, and her feelings, she felt a weight lift off of her shoulders.
Lauryn Hill’s album was so influential and powerful that it has been certified as a diamond album, meaning it sold over 10 million copies. It was awarded five Grammys and holds the number 10 ranking on Rolling Stones’ top 500 albums of all time.
Lauryn Hill used her platform to shed light on social issues including race and sex, while also making songs so catchy that they became overplayed on radio stations in the late 90s to early 2000s. The problems that she speaks on are relevant to today and tomorrow. The album is a perfect masterpiece from start to finish, and is an album everyone should listen to at least fourteen times. Lauryn Hill’s genius album landed her a spot on my Mount Rushmore of greatest hip hop artists of all time.
