The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill

I will never, ever, understand why this is rated so highly that Lauryn can still tour, and be a diva, on the back of it.

A few good tracks, but so much uninspired filler. It's not that this is badly produced or performed, but it's just not for me. I was bored for an hour.

Not bad musically, but did not enjoy the classroom interludes.

Die R&B Laier hat nicht überzeugt. Die Mischung aus Hip-Hop, Rap, Soul und R&B ist einfach nicht mein Fall.
Positiv hervorzuheben ist, dass ich das Album ohne Kopfschmerztabletten durchhören konnte. Lauryn Hill’s Stimme und die Produktion mögen vielleicht von hoher Qualität sein. Dennoch musste ich ein paar Mal die Skip-Taste nutzen, da mich einige Tracks ärgerten und wie die Vorgänger wirkten. Einzig “Can’t Take My Eyes Off (I Love You Baby” war ein winziges Licht im Dunkeln des Albums. Insgesamt trifft das Album nicht meinen persönlichen Musikgeschmack trifft und ich werde es bestimmt nicht nochmal hören.

excellent featured artists

Her masterpiece. Stood up well

This exists in that nebulous area where it isn't bad, but there's just nothing that pulls me in enough to get excited about it. I find my mind drifting as it plays and allowing it to become background noise. I can certainly see why others enjoy it. The vocal delivery is competent. The instrumentation is well performed, and is certainly more evolved than the average hip-hop from this era. It has a very "modern R&B" feel to it, which I've never really preferred. Maybe that's the turn off? Overall it's just nothing I can get passionate about either for or against.

You won't usually catch me listening to 90s R&B and/or hip-hop, but this is actually pretty good. I wasn't really feeling it for the first four tracks, but by track eight I was sold. This is what a classic sounds like.

Yeah. This is a good album. I'm surprised how young she sounds and the lyrics themselves. I suppose that's the theme of the album, but it just felt really fresh and new even 25 (!) years later.

I recently saw a list that had this as the greatest album of all time. I don't agree with that, but this is still amazing.

5.0/5.0: Iconic

i wanted to like this album. she has a great voice and most of the beats are awesome. the album just drags on for entirely too long and so i found myself counting down how many songs i had left which is never a good sign. the combination of the length and the overbearingly preachy lyrics made this feel like more of a chore than anything else. my assumption is someone told her that cds could fit 80 minutes and she was miseducated enough to think that meant the album had to be that long.

I knew I was giving it a 5, I just… ugh. Wow. It’s so good. I haven’t heard it in full in a bit, but it’s so goddamn good.

There are some songs where the repetition becomes too noticeable to ignore at times, but when this album clicks, it clicks deeply. Her lyricism is great, her vocals are spectacular, and the instrumentals are really fun throughout, especially when they lean into live instrumentation. The biggest knock I have on this album is its length (it’s a little long), but it just doesn’t matter that much to me. It’s not a perfect album, but I love it regardless, and I really wish Lauryn Hill had tried to top herself, but if she never does, she left an absolutely stellar project here, and it’s so highly recommended. Easy 5.

Some of the songs on this album that are more soul and less hip hop aren't terrible. I hate hip hop, it just does nothing for me at all. She's got a great singing voice and I wish this album had been more of that. The more reggae sounding songs were cool too. It's just ruined with the rap that sort of takes over.
And what's with the skits? Like how did that become a staple on hip hop albums from this time? It's weird and takes you out of the album. 2/5

Pop R & B isn't my usual taste in music but the further into this album I got, the more I enjoyed it. Especially like the socially conscious songs and the variety of influences (dancehall, rap). Always cool to get a feminist perspective. Really like the cover of "Can't Take My Eyes Off of You."

I like the Fugees. Lauryn Hill's voice is good too. I tried to listen to the whole album. But there was too much rap for my taste.
2/5

Just not really my cup of tea. A couple of alright tracks but I just got bored quite quickly.

Really good and really long. I feel like, if you cut this album in half and just took the best half: 5 stars easy.

After the break-up of Fugees, Lauryn Hill started a solo career. When we look back on the past twenty-five years we unfortunately have to conclude that Lauryn Hill's career has not become what was expected at the time. Despite the fact that Ms Hill ultimately only released two albums, she did have a great influence on a whole generation of young musicians.
Which makes sense because The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill is a really great album.

With sixteen tracks and more than 45 minutes of music and a few skits that unlike on many other rap and R&B albums do not have to be suffered through, it is quite an ambitious album. This is not only because of the playing time, but also because of the colorful mix of styles, the high-quality songs and the versatile singing and rap of the American musician. Lauryn Hill takes on soul, R&B, hip-hop, rap, folk, gospel, reggae, funk and pop and cleverly blends all these styles together.

This album, produced by Lauryn Hill herself, still sounds fantastic 25 years later, partly because Lauryn Hill was way ahead of her time in 1998 and partly because the music on The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill is surprisingly timeless.

I enjoyed this album—I liked the skits (I thought they were fun, but then again, I’m a teacher, so it was kind of up my alley), I thought her synthesis of hip hop and soul was well executed, and I liked the woman-focused perspective. Just based off of listening experience alone, I would have given it 4/5 stars.

The reason it’s getting 5/5 is that after reading about its legacy, you cannot deny the profundity of its impact. So many amazing artists have cited it as an influence, she uplifted women through rap, she introduced vulnerability to hip hop. The album earns that extra star off of its sheer importance—it really seems to have been a pioneering record.

I enjoy this album, but there's something I can't really put my finger on that stop it from being a 5 star for me. Maybe it's just too long. I also feel like Lauren comes off as quite preachy in a few songs, which makes a lot more sense when you learn a bit more about her. Still though, some fantastic songs and great performances on here.

Amazing recording and production; this album sounds like a top tier Motown band live in the studio with Lauryn Hill - the deep grooves of the bass, funky Stevie Wonder-sounding clavinets, the tight swing of the drums, and the soulful horns throughout build an incredible platform for her vocals - precisely rapped verses weaving together personal stories, sociological observation, and political critique - her delivery slides between rapping and singing as melodies seem to emerge out of nowhere. Other songs have a more PC-built beat feel, with classic 90s production, turntable scratches, and looped samples - good, but not as timeless or distinctive as the more neo-soul stuff. Her voice is a bit nasal and limited to a mid-high range, but has great expressive vibrato that wraps around the backing vocalists and her own overdubs to create a poly-vocal harmonic gospel choir sound. Nice Bob Marley Burning reference on the cover.