The record-breaking hip-hop turns 15 years old today, along with the impact it caused
The first hip-hop album I ever owned, because it was the first hip-hop album I ever bought, turns 15 years old today. ‘The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill’ was the first concept album I had experienced in a concentrated manner. Looking at the liner notes, dissecting lyrics, listening closely to the interludes. All in the hopes of trying to get the album to give me more. I didn’t want it to stop giving me things to feel or think about. Fifteen years later, I realize I didn’t need to do that.
With age came different moments when tracks that were initially glazed over began clicking. While ‘Every Ghetto, Every City’ was clearly about Lauryn’s personal roots but when I hear her smoothly sing, “Don’t forget what you got, looking back,” I think about the neighborhood I grew up in. Then I smile when she finishes the second verse with, “Looking at the crew, we thought we’d all live forever.”
Even ‘Doo Wop (That Thing)’ had a second wave of revelation when I realized it was really about how we’ve been taught to use sex as power and its message that we should rise above that.
One of my favorite things about the album were the booklet photos. I loved the way Lauryn looked in them. In these photos she was feminine, but tough at the same time. The photos captured Lauryn’s famed juxtaposition. Jay Z said it best, “[Lauryn Hill] was also one of the few contemporary female MCs I could even rap along to in my car. Lauryn’s lyrics transcended the specifics of gender…”
Where the ‘The Miseducation…’ teetered on strange ground was the openness it possessed in dealing with Lauryn Hill’s heartbreak. Like, who was ‘I Used To Love Him’ about? It was so good. So honest. So in line with the artistic notion that pain yields revelations. Lauryn was mum to say the least in revealing the album’s true inspiration. Hip-hop insiders knew, but that mass audience that this album crossed over to had no idea — and quite frankly, they didn’t care. Years later we would get confirmation that Wyclef Jean and her had an extramarital affair.
Truthfully, my ear for hip hop is based upon this album. In some ways, many people would say that it isn’t representative of the genre as a whole since it covered R&B as well. The album’s infusion of other genres thrusted me into the frame of mind that hip hop was more than just bars over beats. It’s the first hip-hop album I really listened to — connected to. It’s like the first boyfriend I’ll always measure future boyfriends up against.
It’s why my threshold for fuck-shit hip-hop is low, because it was this album that began my habit of asking certain questions when it came to art (books, music, fashion): How does it connect? Why does it connect? Who does it connect with? How far spread is that connection?
In that way Lauryn Hill taught me to expect a high caliber of connectedness from hip-hop albums. In the end, she taught me how to listen to music.
For that, thank you, Lauryn.
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Originally published at thedearjon.wordpress.com on August 28, 2013.
