They Don't Make 'Em Like This Anymore

"I don't care how many times it has been done; I am putting my own two cents on the album that carried me from pre-teen to teen to young woman to beginning almost-real adulthood. Everybody can have their opinions but (to me) The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill is the 1990's hip-hop/r&b answer to Songs In The Key Of Life. For the soul purists this may be a big claim but I'm just saying what this album has meant to me. My auntie Lucy bought this CD for my 12th birthday in 1998 and nearly 10 years later I'm catching lines I missed."
-Me

That's what I wrote last night/this morning when I thought to myself that I was going to write about this album that serves as my life soundtrack. Then, like usual, I got distracted and went off elsewhere but today I decided to come back to what I had intended to say. What I intended to say is that maybe I take things differently than other people... Maybe I put to much into music... Maybe it has too big of a presence in my life. If that is true SO BE IT! I am a music lover and though I am (admittedly) not the most fickle of music lovers it is rare that I can listen to an entire album on repeat without skipping and never get bored. This album... *DEEP SIGH* This album is about LOVE in every form.

• Difficult/Painful Love - "Ex-Factor"
• Love Of Your Child - "To Zion"
  
• Love Yourself Young Women and Men - "Doo Wop (That Thing)"
• Love For God (Beautiful song, though I'm not religious) - "Tell Him"

I could actually go on and on but I'm trying not to be TOO long-winded. Lauryn Hill has inspired many. You look on Youtube and there are countless covers of her songs by musicians (both professional and amateur). Sadly, The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill is her only solo studio album. Lauryn Hill has become known for her semi-crazy antics. People have alleged she is a racist based off of quotes that she never said (See: Wikipedia). Do I wish that she could somehow go back to the Lauryn that made this beautiful album? Yes. But Lauryn contends that the Lauryn I (and many like me) long for was not the real Lauryn Hill and that she was not being completely true to herself.

"People need to understand that the Lauryn Hill they were exposed to in the beginning was all that was allowed in that arena at that time. There was much more strength, spirit and passion, desire, curiosity, ambition and opinion that was not allowed in a small space designed for consumer mass appeal and dictated by very limited standards. I had to step away when I realized that for the sake of the machine, I was being way too compromised. I felt uncomfortable about having to smile in someone’s face when I really didn’t like them or even know them well enough to like them."
-Lauryn Hill

So I guess she is never "coming back." That is her right. It will not stop me from enjoying this masterpiece. But I just need someone to tell VIBE MAGAZINE that Amy Winehouse will NEVER be Lauryn Hill, not that I take much credit in Vibe Magazine anyway. "Forgive them father, they know not what they do..."


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Now playing: Lauryn Hill - Every Ghetto, Every City
via FoxyTunes