With August 25 of this year serving as the 17th anniversary of Lauryn Hill’s famed The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill album, AllHipHop.com caught up with a handful of Hip Hop tastemakers to get their thoughts on the singer/rapper and her iconic solo debut.
Television and radio personality Ed Lover spoke on The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill being released at a time when raunchy and “rugged” raps were popular among female artists. According to the former “Yo! MTV Raps” host, Lauryn “came just from the perspective of a woman.”
“My impression when I first heard the album is I couldn’t stop playing it,” Ed Lover said. “I thought it was one of the most incredible bodies of work that I’ve ever heard. And especially coming from a female. Because at the time, when Lauryn was coming out—when she came out with her solo album we had a lot of ‘I’m the bitch,’ ‘I’m the baddest bitch,’ ‘I take it in the ass,’ ‘People wanna suck my pussy,’ and ‘My pussy got gold lining to it.’ On the other side of that you had Eve spitting ‘I’m a pitbull in a skirt.’ ‘I’m rough. I’m rugged.’ It was Rage. ‘I’m rough, I’m rugged.’ And she came just from the perspective of a woman.”
Newark, New Jersey lyricist Redman referred to The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill as life-changing. Speaking lightheartedly on the album, he added that it made women “cocky” at the time of its release.
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“Man, it changed all our lives,” Redman said. “It changed Erick Sermon’s life. It changed my life. It changed anybody who was tuned into Lauryn Hill at that time. And The Fugees at that time. It changed—Because first of all we was wondering what she was gonna do solo. And she was a big empowerment for women at that time. Women tuned into her like she was a Ms. Luther King. That’s how women tuned in. Every chick house I went to they was bumping Lauryn Hill. She made it hard for dudes to run bullshit on women at that time too. Women were very fuckin’ cocky when that album came out.”
