On a monthly basis, the Houston Press will deep-dive an album that dropped on that particular month in the ’90s. Some were well-received. Others not. Some have held up. Others, far from it. Some marked an artist’s critical or commercial peak. Others simply set the table for more greatness to come. Regardless, they all helped constitute a decade that ranks among the most influential in music history.
This is “The Way it Was.”
The artist: Lauryn Hill
The album: The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill
The release date: August 25, 1998
The backstory: To call Lauryn Hill new to the scene upon dropping her first – and, to date, only – proper studio album would blatantly disregard one of the most influential and impactful groups in hip-hop history. The Fugees – consisting of Hill, Pras and Wyclef Jean – formed in the early 90s, recorded a proper debut album in 1992 and – amidst a dispute with their record label – didn’t see it released until two years later. That debut, Blunted on Reality, is fine as debuts go, but it didn’t really make much noise critically or commercially, and the Fugees could have very well been one of many 90s artists who inked a record deal, underwhelmed on the charts and never really made much of an imprint at all.
Then came The Score. The Fugees’ second – and likely final – album was released in February 1996. Widely regarded among the best hip-hop albums of the 90s, The Score – thanks in part to singles like “Killing Me Softly” and “Ready or Not” – won the 1997 Grammy for Best Rap Album and eventually moved north of 20 million copies worldwide.
The Fugees were international megastars, the faces of a new era of hip-hop, critical and commercial darlings. The Score was a certifiable hit, and the group was on its way, until it wasn’t.
Via oft-detailed personal and professional disagreements, the Fugees called it quits a year later, and Hill, Wyclef and Pras all sought their solo fortunes elsewhere. Hill’s arrived rather instantaneously.
The impact: Two years after The Score put Hill on the map, and a year after the group from which that classic came called it quits, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill was released. Unlike the Fugees, who took a little time to gain fame and notoriety, Hill’s ascent to solo stardom was no slow climb. Miseducation was a critically beloved hit from day one. It topped pretty much every year-end “best of” list, marked the first #1 Billboard 200 album by a solo woman hip-hop artist, was eventually certified Diamond for sales in excess of 10 million copies and won the 1998 Grammy for Album of the Year.
But many albums are critically and commercially beloved in the moment; Miseducation meant more. The Library of Congress declared it “culturally, historically and aesthetically significant.” Harvard selected it among the first hip-hop albums to be preserved in its Loeb Music Library. It’s basically the perfect album.
More importantly, and despite a career that’s been wrought with unevenness (more on that later), Miseducation is absolutely laser focused. To hell with wasted tracks; there are no wasted moments. Collaborations with D’Angelo, Mary J. Blige and Carlos Santana still hold up. “Doo Wop (That Thing)” is widely and rightfully regarded as one of the greatest songs in pop music history.
To some, it would have made sense for Hill to ride off into the sunset. After all, who could top perfection with a proper follow-up? So, Hill did just that. Sort of.
The legacy: Okay, so this is where it gets complicated. Hill’s career since Miseducation doesn’t take away from one of the greatest albums in music history. That will never change. It, does, however, impact the public’s view of Hill the artist and performer. Four years after Miseducation made her a solo star, Hill (who had been out of the public eye for some time) released a live MTV Unplugged album that was both well-intentioned and incredibly messy. Sales were modest, reception was quite divided, and that was pretty much it for Hill the solo recording artist.
Since then, tours (both of the solo and Fugees variety) have started. Tours have stopped. Albums rumored. Albums not released. Late arrivals. No-shows. Hill and her former Fugees have sparred in the press. Hell, they just cancelled another reunion tour. It’s been tumultuous, to put it mildly.
In any event, personal issues aside, Hill accomplished something that few can even stake to claim – she released arguably the greatest pop album of all time. It takes a certain kind of genius to accomplish such a feat in the first place.
Biggest track: “Doo Wop (That Thing)” is the biggest and best track of 1998, and this is pretty much universally agreed upon. To this day, it marks Hill’s first and only #1 Billboard single, and “Doo Wop” has since been included in the list of “Songs of the Century” by the Recording Industry Association of America and the National Endowment for the Arts. When you think definitive and impactful “songs of the 90s,” it’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” “Doo Wop” and then everything else.
Best track: One could attempt to get creative here, or one could just be honest. “Doo Wop” isn’t just the best song on Miseducation; it’s one of the definitive songs of its era. “She killed it, we could end that conversation with that, right?” Yes, we certainly can.
This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2024.
