We have cheated a number of times in choosing this week's classic album. It's Friday night for a start. We also went through a number of 'random' selections before finding an album we wanted to listen to. Nirvana, the Velvet Underground and Nick Cave were not appropriate for this balmy Canberra evening where the beers are flowing and there is still the promise of the weekend. The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill is perfect.
Lauryn Hill's first solo album is a deep, slow-burning, hip hop record. It's low-key but intense - the lyrics and themes are deeply personal - exploring race, love, women and faith. Hill's rapping rivals anyone in the game but it's her singing that sets her apart. It's smooth, subtle and soulful. She switches seamlessly from rapping to singing throughout the album, harmonising with herself and riffing off her own melodies.
B offers his analysis - "It sounds like she was smoking a lot of weed". Well yes, she was hanging out in Jamaica with Bob Marley's son and the family of Marleys. Hill was pregnant when she was writing this album - the creativity and moving influence of this time of her life is borne out in the songs. She mixes reggae, r&b and soul influences, producing a ground-breaking hip hop album that challenged and defeated the misogynistic genre.
The massive hit was Doo Wop (That Thing). This is the song you want your little girls to listen to. It's Aretha Franklin's modern day Respect. Make your boys listen too for that matter. This album was huge because it appealed to everyone. And if you find someone who claims to like hip hop without respecting this album, then kick them in the shins. Ex-Factor is the killer break up song that Kelly Clarkson wishes she could get close to.
Despite being a brilliant album that easily stacks up 15 years down the track, at 70 minutes in length, it does start to fade towards the end, particularly the appalling Nothing Even Matters with D'Angelo. Nonetheless, Everything is Everything kicks in towards the end and keeps the faith. The film clip of New York as a giant record is a revelation.
It is only fitting that Kanye ends our post tonight with some sadly honest lines about Hill in his song Champion - "Lauryn Hill says her heart was in Zion. I wish her heart still was in rhyming. Cos who the kids gonna listen to huh? I guess me if it isn't you". Yep, nicest way to say that since this very brilliant album, Lauryn Hill has stepped off the reservation.
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