Lauryn Hill's 'The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill' Goes Diamond

Is she still batshit?

It's a fabulous album, she was going to be a huge star, and then it all evaporated because she's crazy as a shithouse rat. What a shame, she had real talent.

I still think a team of people wrote that for her. They all sued her after, and she hasn't done a damn thing since.

Can you imagine having to be a judge and listening to a bunch of rap ding dongs fighting about who wrote what "song" on some stupid album?

^ Decrepit old ding dong

I'm surprised its just going Diamond. This album is an R&B & Hip-hop standard.

John Legend was only 19 years old on the piano, and he made the liner notes of the album for "Everything is Everything". Now an EGOT. Culturally major album, birthed careers.

I love Lauryn but she is so mentally damaged and traumatized like Sinead O'Connor and Fiona Apple. Is Lauryn going to get any therapy? Erykah Badu is crazy too but at least she managed to keep herself together.

I would say that Badu is more eccentric than crazy. Hill, O'Connor and Apple are genuinely bugfuck crazy. All very talented artists, though.

She looks GIGANTIC in that pic - like Aretha-big.

All that crazy didn't stop her from having a ton of kids! She has 6 and is now a grandmother too.

It's easily one of the best albums of all time. Too bad she went crazy, but she was never going to match that regardless.

I liked her music. Too bad she went cuckoo for cocoa puffs.

It's sad she lost her marbles. The album was great and stands the test of time.

It only went diamond from streams. BFD.

Great album.

How did she lose her shit? I know all about Sinead but don't know the story behind Lauryn.

Doo Wop is one of the best videos ever.

It has not only held up, but increased in regard over the years. In a lot of "greatest albums of all time" lists it's now in top ten.

What if her unique emotional and mental characteristics had let her put out more than one album? Would she be one of the greatest artists of all time, or is Miseducation so highly regarded because it's literally one-of-a-kind.

I know it’s an unpopular opinion, but I like her MTV unplugged album as well.

Where is Gap playlist guy? I vaguely remember “Everything is Everything” being on the Gap playlist summer of 1998, and the denim jacket Lauryn wears in the music video being from the Gap fall 1998 line

timeless

I miss '90s music. Honestly, most music turned to shit around 2000.

This album has stood the test of time. Her competition that year for Album of the Year was Shania Twain's Come on Over, Garbage's 2.0, Sheryl Crow's The Globe Sessions, and Madonna's Ray of Light.

The absolute best track from the album. Goosebumps every fucking time.

This is one of those rare albums like Saturday Night Fever, Michael Jackson's Thriller, George Michael's Faith, The Bodyguard Soundtrack, Jagged Little Pill, etc., that everybody has in their music collection. It doesn't matter what race, age, gender, you are, it's one of those albums that is beloved by so many.

It really has held up as a timeless album, much more than most releases from that era. I was growing up during the time she put it out and it had such a major impact. I wouldn't say it was quite as culturally relevant as Thriller or Adele's 21, but it has shown far more longevity than either of those albums.

I also remember that, at certain points (when radio was still relevant), they would always randomly play Doo Wop when DJ's heard word that Lauryn Hill was finally going to release her follow up album. This happened a number of times, including in 2007 and then in 2012 and then 2014, where it really did seem like it was finally time for her sophomore release. We're new 23 years removed from her debut and the odds that she will ever put out another album are slim to none at this point. Maybe she'll surprise us, but I highly doubt it.

Maybe it's because she feels she can't top it or because she's difficult to work with and no label wants to sign her. Either way, it's a shame that we never got to hear what else she could have done musically. At least, though, she didn't end up dead like Amy Winehouse. There was an interview that I can't find anymore where Jay-Z had said he hoped that Amy wouldn't end up like Lauryn. Amy would still be alive if she had.

I don't have it. I never liked her. I thought the best album of 98 was Rufus Wainwright's debut, followed by Ray of Light, Feeling Strangely Fine by Semisonic, and This Euphoria by David Garza.

I loved it. She's not anymore batshit than Axl Rose or any of the many other woman beaters in music.

Rufus Wainwright's "singing" sounds like a tone deaf cat. I can't bear to listen to him.

I really loved that neo-soul period in the second half of the 90s. Lauryn Hill, Erykah Badu, Maxwell, Jill Scott and others. It was fabulous "adult" music. And then it was all blown away by teen pop and shitty hip hop acts. It was a damn shame.

R7----I have always thought LH and SO'C had similar career trajectories and life stories. Both: beautiful and great singers, hit it big very young, reacted badly to huge fame, weirdly obsessed with religion, many kids, downward slide to mental illness and never reached their former creative peaks or financial success.

" I wouldn't say it was quite as culturally relevant as Thriller or Adele's 21" <---white person talking

TMoLH was culturally relevant to people of color, you just don't know.

r30 Donna Summer was kind of the same, minus the mental illness. She was very uncomfortable with the huge fame she achieved in the 70s and kind of withdrew from the spotlight as a result. She also had the crazy Jesus stuff going on, too. Although she continued to record and tour she had a lower profile and never attained her previous success.

I'm old enough to remember "Thriller" and Michael Jackson at the height of his 80s fame, and I can't think of any other album that had that kind of impact on the public. And I'm saying this as a person who was only a casual fan of MJ, I was never crazy about him.

[quote] I'm old enough to remember "Thriller" and Michael Jackson at the height of his 80s fame, and I can't think of any other album that had that kind of impact on the public.

The last album I remember ever having that type of impact was "The Bodyguard" soundtrack.

[...]

Thriller was a little bigger than the Bodyguard.

r33 the 90s was definitely the last time a single album could be universal i.e. everybody and their mother had it and it was ubiquitous in the culture. No album in the 21st century has done that because everything became so fragmented. I guess Adele came close with 21.

Music is very identity based now. Our lack of unity will not allow us to agree like we use to, everyone has become caricatures on steroids.

She has done nothing after that album. She went full loving-jesus and stop working. Even went to jail for taxevasion for a while.

When Beyoncé dropped her Lemonade album I could not help but compare to TMOLH, Mama's Gun by Erykah, The Velvet Rope by Janet and that film Daughters of the Dust by Julie Dash. Yet it got a ton of praise from the press as revolutionary but it showed me how derivative people can get embellished by the media as being creative and groundbreaking when they aren't and that people will foolishly believe it.

Here is Rah Digga telling how Lauryn needed encouragement to even sing a hook on a rap track, she was not confident in it at first. Rah Digga ended up on The Score album and didn't make a dime, despite the album going Diamond. The single she was on had a Kenny Rogers sample that ate up most of the money the song made.

They weren't expecting the huge response the music got. I dont think Lauryn was really prepared for the fame and to be the star of the group, and it landed on her.

R29: yeah I miss that whole neo-soul movement in the 90s. That and alternative rock was the last time music was good.

Baby One More Time was another phenomenon.

I used to love Miseducation, but I recently heard it and felt it didn't hold up to time.

Maybe because I knew every track so well,

Sad that she couldn't follow this up with anything great

Ex-Factor is a brilliant song.

Some of these mentally disrupted entertainers should have studied the fabulous Sade to see how to handle fame and fortune.

Record it, get out there and publicize it, tour with it and then go home and live your life. Done and done.

I was watching the young and beautiful Lauren in that Sister Act movie the other day and remembered thinking back then that she was going to be big and fabulous for a long time. Just goes to show you how wrong you can be about things.

True, r45. And Sade was immensely famous, too. Even at the A-List superstar level it's possible.

Even though I'm in my 20s, I really do feel that the 90s was the last real decade where musicianship really mattered in the mainstream. There has been small revivals like the post-punk movement, PC music and the DIY singer-songwriter boom. But too many mainstream artists have become famous for their personality and "relatabality" (Billie, Cardi, Shawn, etc) rather than actually being extremely talented and offering something new to the table. The music industry doesn't invest in artists anymore. Even the most creative person still needs money and time to work on their project. Bedroom music will never replicate the quality of a professional studio and having the funds. And it doesn't help that the manufactured pop tarts who would not have lasted past year 2 or 3 still stick around way past their sell-by date (like Bieber, Selena, Katy etc). This is why made it a point to myself to actually buy the music and merchandise from the artists I enjoy. Streaming doesn't pay their bills.

Needs to make a follow titled the “The Miseducation of Trumpers”

R20, I don't get Alerts when threads are started with GAP-adjacent subject matter.

"Can't Take My Eyes Off Of You" is on the September 1998 Gap In-Store Playlist.

"Every Ghetto, Every City" is on the October 1998 Gap In-Store Playlist.

Lauryn Hill also wrote and sings on "A Rose Is Still A Rose" for Aretha Franklin, which is on both the March 1998 and May 1998 Gap In-Store Playlists.

"Everything Is Everything" is on the January 1999 Gap In-Store Playlist.

Oh fuck off you fucking GAP freak.

[quote] I miss that whole neo-soul movement in the 90s. That and alternative rock was the last time music was good.

This is true. I grew up in the '90s and both genres define me to this day. Neo-soul and alternative rock lasted until the early 2000s and it really was the last time music was good. The industry has been on constant decline since. I loved so many acts from both genres, but also the fashion and general culture. On any particular weekend, we would be spoilt for choice for concerts.

Neo-soul: Lauryn Hill; Fugees; Wyclef Jean; D'Angelo; Erykah Badu; Jill Scott; Musiq Soulchild; Anthony Hamilton; Jaguar Wright; The Roots; Lina; India Arie; Raphael Saadiq; Maxwell; Floetry; De La Soul; Angie Stone; Dwele; Goapele; Kindred the Family Soul; Mos Def; Macy Gray; Ledisi; Meshell Ndegeocello; Common; Sunshine Anderson; Eric Bennet ...

Alternative Rock: Smashing Pumpkins; Dave Matthews Band; Alanis Morissette; Sophie B. Hawkins; Blessed Union of Soul; Third Eye Blind; Wallflowers; New Radicals; Lisa Loeb; Toad and the Wet Sprocket; Jimmy Eat World; Liz Phair; Weezer; R.E.M.; Nirvirna; Sublime; Hootie and the Blowfish; Teenage Fanclub; Garbage; Matchbox 20; Blues Traveller; Fastball; Spin Doctors; Meredith Brooks; Pearl Jam; Green Day; Smashmouth; Red Hot Chilli Peppers ...

And even their collaborations were dope. One of my favourites was by Teenage Fanclub and De La Soul.

She did another good album after that but it included lots of talking between songs. I got so sick of her “I have so much important stuff to say!” that I created a tape of the album without all talking.

I remember when she was a cast member on "As The World Turns"!

I can’t believe how much pop music regressed one year later with tacky Britney/Backstreet Boys trash

Britney gays are fucking airhead basic bitches. No taste.

Lauren reminds me of a homeless woman I used to see by the subway entrance. She wore only a garbage bag and smelled like shit. How do you even begin to help someone like that?

Amazing.

I agree 100% r55. The teen pop shit ruined music. And gays who were into Britney/NSync and all that shit were basic trash. And now those same basic bitch gays are 40 year-olds who love Ariana. It's pathetic.

worships Britney.

Most gay guys I know aren't into Britney though. Beyoncé, Ariana, Nicki, Lana and Gaga yes. But Britney isn't that relevant.

But Britney is more of a late millennial/Y2K/TRL icon. People who were kids of that era are the ones nostalgic for Britney, Spice Girls, BSB, NSYNC just like they are for AOL, Gameboy, Nickelodeon and Pokémon.

Music is cheap to make now. Companies can go online, find a pretty face or someone with acceptably controversial opinions, have a hired team of writers craft an album for them, buy followers and make sure they trend. Rinse and repeat every 5 years. Music is completely run by men in suits and, not by creativity or spontaneity.

The reality is she had ONE studio album. That is super suspect and weird... feels like the music equivalent to Ben and Matt’s ONE screenplay which won them an Oscar. One hit wonders like like this that achieve commercial and critical success are bizarre. Why couldn’t Lauryn follow up with another album? Say what you want about Sinéad, Eryka, and Fiona, but they have a rich discography.

My very favorite thing by Lauryn Hill, though, is with the Fugees on the LOVE JONES soundtrack, "The Sweetest Thing," which is on the May 1997 Gap In-Store Playlist.

LOVE that song!

r62 if you count The Score with the Fugees, that's two critically acclaimed hit albums.

Im actually glad she exited at the peak. Alicia Keys came in right after. Neo-soul and R&B as a whole fell out of the mainstream a few years later. Her follow-up album probably would not have gotten the attention it deserved. If you watch her speak at r62, its clear that she was not made for the fickle music industry at all. She has an activist mind, but just happens to be very talented at singing and rapping.

How does she feed herself? The residuals can't be that much

Lauryn still gets booked for shows despite not showing up for half of them

Lauryn Hill is easily one of the best rappers in history, male or female. She had a great flow.

I remember Lauryn winning AOTY at the Grammys. Crackney Houston, high as a fucking kite, was a presenter along with the pretentious cunt Sting. Houston did some kind of cracked out dance when they opened the envelope to reveal Hill as the winner.

So how did Lauryn go off the deep end?

[quote]Rah Digga ended up on The Score album and didn't make a dime, despite the album going Diamond. The single she was on had a Kenny Rogers sample that ate up most of the money the song made.

This one r40? The track or the part Pras sings? It's my favourite Fugees video.

Probably the best cover ever of 'Can't Take My Eyes Off of You'.

I always figured the "she went batshit crazy" was the usual misogynistic dribble assigned to difficult women. She was just notoriously difficult, correct? Didn't show up to shows or left halfway through when technicalities weren't up to her standards?

Here is a really good Rolling Stone article from 2003 about Lauryn by Toure. Lots of tea.

Lauyn's whole solo career was pretty much birthed because of her beef with Wyclef. Apparently she was his sidepiece and he was controlling. Her relationship with Rohan Marley was a get back at him and so was her solo album. After that she pretty much burnt out. I dont think she had ambition beyond getting back at Wyclef, so she surely wasnt going to put up with the tedious and fickle industry after that. She also got brainwashed by some religious cult leader. Rohan got her pregant every other year and she didn't have time to anything really but deal with her kids after that.

I have never heard one song on this album and had no interest when it came out. I was 21 too!

Still don't.

And that is fucking weird to me.

One day I am going to have a glass of wine and listen to it.

No r72 she was certifiable.

Movie roles turned down by Lauryn Hill from 1998-2003!

Beloved Charlie's Angels The Bourne Identity The Mexican The Matrix Reloaded The Matrix Revolutions

She could've had a superstar career, what a shame her mental illness and relationship issues had to interfere. It's unfortunate because she wasn't just some no-talent who got lucky for awhile like Katy Perry or Bieber, she had genuine bonafide talent.

Just catching up on this thread now. I can't imagine what a 'storm in a teacup' life she was living in the years after the Fugees hit big. She was the clear star of the group (their biggest hit is her singing solo with Wyclef trying to get attention in the background) and that obviously caused tensions in the group, she was getting booked by legendary artists such as Aretha to write and produce for them while still trying to pursue her own music, dealing with record label vultures, navigating film offers and magazine/media appearances, and suddenly pregnant by one of the Marley family.... all this while she was still a teenager? No wonder she wanted to get out and eventually lost her marbles a bit.

The album is brilliant and holds up tremendously. The fusion of her modern hip hop perspective with different styles such as reggae, gospel, jazz, spoken word, R&B, funk, rap, and lush classical soul music was quite groundbreaking at the time. It's like a beautiful trip through black creativity. With real musicianship and instrumentation (a concept long dead and buried today) and soaring vocals. I remember being young and listening to the radio and hearing her sing about her record label trying to force her into an abortion ("look at your career", they said, "Lauryn baby use your head"). Simply no other young star was sharing honest lyrics like this in mainstream music, in a way both street kids and coffeehouse poets could relate to. '21' and 'Songs in A Minor' could never.

In hindsight, it's a huge shame the neo soul era was so short-lived. I was a young (black) bohemian teenager and it felt like there was finally a scene that represented me. 3-4 years later it was pretty much gone. What I would give to hear real instruments, great musicians, and deep lyrics again. Even their modern day equivalents, who I like, make all their music on Ableton and rely on samples and Melodyne (autotune). The UNPLUGGED album has even better wordplay, and I still hope one day she will return like D'Angelo did with Black Messiah, perhaps when we least expect it. That voice is much missed. She always radiated natural talent:

RnB doesn’t count

But what about Car Wheels on a Gravel Road by Lucinda Williams? Not a bad track on the album.

R80 West is my fave

You have to be batshit crazy to be jailed for tax evasion. This not only hints at not having the right advisors and handlers but also an inability to understand basic premises and sensibilities.

Some people in this thread said she went or was allegedly crazy? And if so, how did that contribute to the downfall to her being popular?

Personal opinion: TMOLH hasn’t held up. She’s only considered a legend over Badu or Scott cause she didn’t release much more. Everyone imagines she would have made more great music, but we don’t know that.

R3 I agree with you even though I don't want to. She's done almost nothing since 'The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill.' Nothing. During the course of what sadly wound up being his rather short life, Donny Hathaway did more while living with schizophrenia for goodness sakes. Something's up.

I adored that album because that's what it is, a full on album one can enjoy from start to finish. Of course it would have gone Diamond.

She was physically abusive towards her children, seemingly in part because she let Rohan treat her even worse than Wyclef ever did and had residual anger about it. I think people forget how young she was when the Fugees first came out. She clearly was not prepared for fame and like so many other female performers allowed shitty men to run roughshod over her.

Fun fact that I never see mentioned anywhere, ever: The Fugees got their start as a third generation Kool & The Gang project.

r84 the ALBUM totally holds up. You play the songs from Miseducation at a cookout and everyone still knows all the words to these songs over 20 years later. Lauryn Hill being regarded as a legend in her own right might be up for debate, but the album itself is a legendary piece of music, especially for black music.

It seems like now people never separate the artist from the work created. These blockbuster albums are a product of sometimes huge teams of people working together, Miseducation is a great example. There were a lot of hands in the making of the product and they rightfully got their due. Its like people debating Michael Jackson's musical legacy because of his crazy personal life. Michael Jackson's music and artistry was the work of many exceptionally brilliant people merging themselves with his talent to make his music what is was.

R88. I understand the distinction, obviously there are a team of musicians and engineers. People always want to credit the singer, but frequently the producer really creates the music. I liked it when it came out, it was very popular. She was undeniably talented. Well have to agree to disagree. Music is subjective, and also bound very strongly to nostalgia. There’s no right answer.

All you writing her off because "she never released another album" are reaching.

I get the feeling she never wanted to go through the recording and marketing process again, but I don't buy the idea that she couldn't come up with new material if she wanted to. She's done covers of other songs you can find on YouTube and she's so effortlessly musical even on material that's not from "Miseducation".

It's an enjoyable pleasant well-made record but I don't know where you all are getting the idea that it's "brilliant," "one of the best albums of all time," etc. It really isn't. Even among her peers - I think "Mama's Gun" from Erykah Badu shows a lot more range. (It's also not as striking as the really good Fugees record, the name of which I've now forgotten.)

It went Diamond - so now maybe the crazy bitch can pay her taxes!

r91 I have a great appreciation for Erykah's work as well, as a young gayling in the 90s I connected more with Erykah because she was just different and her music was more sensual and sexual.

I think more people related to Lauryn Hill however, the messages in her album were more accessible. It was the 90s, a simpler time, and this was the first time people heard true original soul music in years. So you have to think about that too. All these people like Jill Scott and D'Angelo and Maxwell all made the neo-soul movement era possible.

What happened to Jill Scott?

yasssss

R94 I don’t know.

Rappers and R&B singers had very decadent recording careers in that it was the 90’s and 00’s and labels had money to blow. They would take 2-3 years making an album and were spending all that time in a recording studio.

I remember Madonna complaining about Justin, Pharrell, and Timbaland while recording “Hard Candy” because some days wouldn’t be productive. Madonna used a recording studio to record whereas Pharrell and Timbaland and Justin are used to spending 10k to wait for creativity to come or whatever.

So a lot of artists from that era fell off when there was no money to spend and didn’t adapt to the newer times where you’ve got younger artists recording music in their bedroom and using closets to record vocals and shit.

I remember TLC did a GoFundMe for their last album and raised like $2 million and when they took too long they were like oh! It takes time and money to get producers and writers and etc. And it’s like no it doesn’t! They could have recorded 3 albums on $2 million. But they’re old school and don’t get it.

R85 “YOU DID NOTHING!” 😂

The Sex Pistols only made one great album too but people don't seem to hold that against them. At least Lauren is attached to two great albums--The Score and her own solo debut.

Lauryn Hill, overrated! 🤮🖕💩

Great album. I remember I worked with a woman who hated LH because she said she stole the entire album.

Fantastic album…and then nothing.

What a waste

R100, that woman wasn't enitrely off base.

How could a woman who plays no instruments compose an entire album?

Didn't they want her for one of Charlie's Angels (2000) ?

She was already having a mental breakdown, so Thandie Newton got the part. She was still busy shooting Mission Impossible 2 that got delayed, so Lucy Liu was casted. I actually would have loved to see Lauryn Hill act with Drew Barrymore and Cameron Diaz.

R102, probably why she was a one hit wonder.