Lauryn Hill | ||
| Allmusic Biography : Lauryn Hill broke through with multi-platinum-selling, Grammy-winning group the Fugees, but with her 1998 solo debut The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, the singer, songwriter, rapper, and producer established herself as a creative force on her own. She successfully integrated rap, soul, and reggae into a singular sound. Eclectic, uplifting, and empowering, the album was often cited by younger artists as a touchstone. Following its success, Hill was something of an enigma, her recorded output limited to a live set, scattered compilation appearances, and a handful of collaborations. Disenchantment with the entertainment industry, along with legal issues and erratic performances, did not lessen the impact of her 90s work. Raised in South Orange, New Jersey, Hill spent her youth listening her parents multi-genre, multi-generational record collection. She began singing at an early age and snagged minor roles on television (As the World Turns) and in film (Sister Act II: Back in the Habit). Her on-again/off-again membership in the Fugees began at the age of 13, but was often interrupted by both the acting gigs and her enrollment at Columbia University. After developing a following in the tri-state area, the groups first release -- the much-hyped but uneven 1994 album Blunted on Reality -- bombed, and almost caused a breakup. But with the multi-platinum 1996 release The Score, the Fugees became one of the most prominent rap acts on the strength of hit singles "Killing Me Softly," "Ready or Not," and "No Woman, No Cry." Hill followed it in August 1998 with The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, her first solo release. Apart from a cover of "Cant Take My Eyes Off You," popularized by Frankie Valli, each song was either written or co-written by Hill. She was also credited with the arrangement and production of the whole album, which was steeped in her old-school background, both musically (the Motown-esque singalong of "Doo Wop [That Thing]") and lyrically (the nostalgic "Every Ghetto, Every City"). As Miseducation began a long reign on the charts through most of the fall and winter of 1998, Hill became a national media icon, as magazines ranging from Time to Esquire to Teen People vied to put her on the cover. By the end of the year, as the album topped best-of lists, she was being credited for her part in assimilating hip-hop into the mainstream. The momentum culminated at the February 1999 Grammy Awards, during which Hill took home five trophies from her 11 nominations, including Album of the Year, Best New Artist, Best Female R&B; Vocal Performance, Best R&B; Song, and Best R&B; Album -- the most ever for a woman. Shortly after, she launched a highly praised national tour with Atlanta rappers OutKast. Hill continued shaping her solo career, though it hit some significant snags. She faced a lawsuit from musicians who claimed they were denied full credit for their work on Miseducation -- a matter that was eventually settled out of court. After some film projects fell through, she retreated from the music scene as she raised her family and partially attributed her hiatus to feeling too compromised. The double-disc MTV Unplugged No. 2.0 appeared in May 2002 and documented a raw, deeply personal performance. It debuted at number three but quickly slid off the Billboard 200. During the next several years, her recordings and performances were infrequent and erratic, highlighted by a Fugees reunion for Dave Chappelles Block Party. In 2013, she spent almost three months in prison for tax evasion but was more active after her release. The following year, the English-language version of the Swedish documentary Concerning Violence was released with Hill as its narrator. She executive produced and recorded six songs for the 2015 release Nina Revisited: A Tribute to Nina Simone, including interpretations of "Feeling Good" and "Black Is the Color of My True Loves Hair." | ||
 | Album: 1 of 4 Title: The Sweetest Thing Released: 1997 Tracks: 4 Duration: 16:45 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% AlbumCover | 1 The Sweetest Thing (Mahogony mix) (04:25) 2 The Sweetest Thing (Mahogony dub) (04:24) 3 I Got a Love Jones for You (03:41) 4 Inside My Love (04:15) |
 | Album: 2 of 4 Title: The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill Released: 1998-08-25 Tracks: 16 Duration: 1:17:46 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Wikipedia Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Intro (00:47) 2 Lost Ones (05:34) 3 Ex‐Factor (05:27) 4 To Zion (06:09) 5 Doo Wop (That Thing) (05:20) 6 Superstar (04:57) 7 Final Hour (04:16) 8 When It Hurts So Bad (05:42) 9 I Used to Love Him (05:40) 10 Forgive Them Father (05:15) 11 Every Ghetto, Every City (05:15) 12 Nothing Even Matters (05:51) 13 Everything Is Everything (04:53) 14 The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill (04:17) 15 Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You (03:42) 16 Tell Him (04:41) |
| The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill : Allmusic album Review : Though the Fugees had been wildly successful, and Lauryn Hill had been widely recognized as a key to their popularity, few were prepared for her stunning debut. The social heart of the group and its most talented performer, she tailored The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill not as a crossover record but as a collection of overtly personal and political statements; nevertheless, it rocketed to the top of the album charts and made her a superstar. Also, and most importantly, it introduced to the wider pop world an astonishingly broad talent. Hills verses were intelligent and hardcore, with the talent to rank up there with Method Man. And for the choruses she could move from tough to smooth in a flash, with a vocal prowess that allowed her to be her own chanteuse (à la Mariah Carey). Hill, of Haitian heritage, rhymed in a tough Caribbean patois on the opener, "Lost Ones," wasting little time to excoriate her former bandmates and/or record-label executives for caving in to commercial success. She used a feature for Carlos Santana ("To Zion") to explain how her child comes before her career and found a hit single with "Doo Wop (That Thing)," an intelligent dissection of the sex game that saw it from both angles. "Superstar" took to task musicians with more emphasis on the bottom line than making great music (perhaps another Fugees nod), while her collaborations with a pair of sympathetic R&B superstars (DAngelo and Mary J. Blige) also paid major dividends. And if her performing talents, vocal range, and songwriting smarts werent enough, Hill also produced much of the record, ranging from stun-gun hip-hop to smoother R&B with little trouble. Though it certainly didnt sound like a crossover record, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill affected so many widely varying audiences that its no surprise the record became a commercial hit as well as a musical epoch-maker. | ||
 | Album: 3 of 4 Title: MTV Unplugged № 2.0 Released: 2002-05-07 Tracks: 22 Duration: 1:46:46 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Intro (02:28) 2 Mr. Intentional (06:58) 3 Adam Lives in Theory (07:26) 4 Interlude 1 (01:56) 5 Oh Jerusalem (08:54) 6 Interlude 2 (01:21) 7 Freedom Time (04:59) 8 Interlude 3 (03:18) 9 I Find It Hard to Say (Rebel) (06:50) 10 Just Like Water (06:09) 11 Interlude 4 (01:40) 12 Just Want You Around (04:36) 13 I Gotta Find Peace of Mind (09:19) 1 Interlude 5 (12:12) 2 Mystery of Iniquity (05:10) 3 Interlude 6 (01:42) 4 I Get Out (05:17) 5 Interlude 7 (00:20) 6 I Remember (03:46) 7 So Much Things to Say (05:59) 8 The Conquering Lion (03:19) 9 Outro (02:56) |
| MTV Unplugged № 2.0 : Allmusic album Review : Lauryn Hills debut album, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, became a critical and commercial blockbuster, which the artist herself, always distrustful of the music business, seems to have found a disorienting experience. She has therefore waited nearly four years to make another album, and the album she has made deliberately flies in the face of the previous one and its reception. Resurrecting the MTV Unplugged program, she has gone before an audience with an acoustic guitar in her hands to sing a new group of songs. But that unadorned approach is only the beginning. Everything about the performance is unpolished. One suspects that she would resist even calling it a performance; "I used to be a performer," she notes at the outset. What she is after, in her life and her music, she explains, is "reality," which means everything from being willing to sing the entire set with a raspy voice because thats the state her voice is in on that day to stopping and starting, going up on the lyrics, and even breaking down in tears. The style naturally places an emphasis on the words to the songs, which reinforce Hills unvarnished approach, attacking the music business and anyone who wants her to be whats shes not, and witheringly criticizing institutions such as the judicial system ("Mystery of Iniquity"). The songs themselves would not require two discs to contain, but they are alternated by lengthy remarks, one spoken interlude running more than 12 minutes, in which Hill elaborates on the importance of being honest and confronting falsehood. Shes usually full of herself, and shes often full of it. But thats okay. The point is the unfinished, unflinching presentation of ideas and of a person. It may not be a proper follow-up to her first album, but it is fascinating. | ||
 | Album: 4 of 4 Title: Ms. Hill Released: 2008-01-18 Tracks: 27 Duration: 1:18:55 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Lauren Hill - (intro) (00:57) 2 Lose Myself (04:18) 3 So High (remix) (03:47) 4 Take It Easy (02:52) 5 Blame It on the Sun (05:09) 6 Sinal Hour (04:10) 7 Lost Ones (04:24) 8 Do You Like the Way (01:18) 9 Superstar (04:56) 10 Here But (00:42) 11 Tell Him (04:36) 12 The Sweetest Thing (04:46) 13 Skit: Lauryn Hill Speaks on Hip Hop (00:20) 14 The Sweetest Thing (Mahogany remix) (04:19) 15 L-Boogie - The Features (interlude) (04:30) 16 Skit: Lauryn Hill Speaks on Music (00:33) 17 Music (00:56) 18 Cowboys (01:06) 19 How Many Emcees (01:56) 20 Guantanamera (00:47) 21 Soon as I Get Home (01:42) 22 Freedom (04:39) 23 Skit (00:50) 24 Ex-Factor (05:24) 25 Nothing Even Matters (05:44) 26 A Change Gonna Come (02:41) 27 Lauryn Hill Speaks: The Ending (01:33) |