Records: Lauryn Hill's The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill

By Saul Austerlitz

Lauryn Hill is our savior, leading the crusade to save hip-hop from the tyranny of Sheriff Puff Daddy and his crew of mealymouthed henchmen. L-Boogie is real hip-hop, and the Fugees' lead singer's long-anticipated debut solo album, shows us all how it's done the right way.

These 16 songs are angry, lush, tightly wound, and full of possibility, from the spare production of "Lost Ones" to the effortless evocation of classic soul on "When it Hurts So Bad." Hill's album is a rare commodity: an album so good it makes everything else seem a step behind.

Hill's lyrics focus on the pain of lost love and her resentment of the gat-toting, Cristal-sipping thugs who claim to represent "real" hip-hop. She finds her inspiration in the beauty of '60s rhythm and blues and the sad lilt of reggae, drawing on those venerable traditions in order to lend her songs a diversity of antecedents. Miseducation concentrates on Hill's talents as a singer, downplaying her equally formidable skills as an emcee to avoid comparison with her fellow Fugee Wyclef Jean.

Her ode to motherhood, "To Zion," digs deepest. Hill compares herself to biblical heroines Sarah and Mary, visited by an angel who "came one day/ told me to kneel down and pray/ for unto me a man-child would be born."

In comparing her own life to that of the biblical matriarchs, Hill shows her desire to craft a persona of impressive proportions. Similarly, Hill's mythologization of her childhood in "Every Ghetto, Every City," reveals her ambition to sound as monumental as the giants of R&B and reggae she grew up on. If The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill is any indication, I have no reason to believe she will fail in this mission. (Ruffhouse/Columbia)

Back to A&E...