The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill (1998)
Favorite Songs: Ex-Factor, Doo Wop (That Thing), Nothing Even Matters, To Zion, Superstar, Everything is Everything
Even though this is a well-known album, and some might argue that it’s not hip-hop, but more soul/R&B, it was the first album that came to mind when I saw this thread. And since it has a definite hip-hop sound and I love it, well…here goes!
Lauryn Hill, besides being drop dead gorgeous, has this incredible, beautiful voice. It can be gritty and tough in one moment, and silky and flowing the next, and I have to say I simply adore this album for it, much more than any of The Fugees albums to be honest (though one might say you shouldn’t really compare them). She can rap, she can sing, she can write and she showcases it all excellently here. She wrote most of the album while she was pregnant with her first child, so a lot of the songs have to deal with her feelings on that (particularly “To Zion”) as well as spirituality, and regret, the last being a popular subject in music nowdays . Except that on this album, the lyrics aren’t overly depressing or negative. The album just has a real up beat vibe and it makes me happy. Plus, it’s a good collaboration of different genres: hip-hop, soul, gospel, and even a little reggae flavor thrown in.
But besides all that, this album always takes me back to a time when my teens were just ending, when my nights (and some of my days too) were filled with driving around aimlessly (or to a concert, or the movies, but mostly aimlessly) with a car full of people, the windows on my $200 Chevy Corsica rolled down (man, I miss that car), moving and shaking to the music and talking to the people in the cars next to us at the stop lights. I miss those days. But even though I don’t have that freedom now (strange how we actually LOSE some freedom as we age), it’s still a gem for those times at work when I’m annoyed, or upset, and need a pick me up, something that’ll make me move in my chair, or when things at home get overwhelming and I need to get away for a drive. Just turn up “Doo Wop” and let my body bounce to the beat, singing along (badly), while people in the cars next to me smile (or point and laugh). Maybe someday I’ll get up the nerve I had when I was 18 to roll down my car window and strike up a conversation with one of them.