When “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill” came out 20 years ago on Aug. 25, 1998, it ushered in a new school of thought in hip-hop. With a rich musicality and lyrics that were both confessional and conscious, Hill’s opus went on to become the first hip-hop LP to win the Grammy for Album of the Year. Two decades later, it’s still having an impact: Drake sampled Hill’s “Ex-Factor” on his No. 1 smash “Nice for What.”
Here are just some of the other rap and R&B artists who were schooled by “Miseducation.”
Cardi B
This year, Cardi B also wove “Ex-Factor” into her hit “Be Careful,” which Hill gave a thumbs-up. “[T]he sensei approved it,” Cardi told Beats 1 radio. Certainly, Cardi has learned well from the master: In 2017, “Bodak Yellow” made her the first woman since Hill, with “Doo Wop (That Thing),” to have a solo rap single go No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Beyoncé
The full-album journey B took us on with 2016’s “Lemonade” is akin to the cohesive vision of “Miseducation.” Beyoncé, who covered “Ex-Factor” on 2014’s On the Run Tour, has credited “Miseducation” with informing her own art. “There’s definitely something beyond Lauryn Hill that’s in her voice and her mind when she writes songs,” she told Entertainment Weekly. “She’s gifted and blessed.”
Nicki Minaj
Hill didn’t limit herself to just rapping or just singing on “Miseducation,” because she could do both. And so can Minaj. When Nicki got to meet her idol — whom she quoted in her high-school yearbook (“To survive is to stay alive in the face of opposition”) — backstage at a concert in 2016, she literally bowed down to her. “This lady is the reason,” she wrote on Instagram.
SZA
“Miseducation” hit especially close to home for SZA: Both she and Hill attended Columbia High School in Maplewood, NJ. “That was really huge,” says SZA of the Hill effect as a teenager. While Hill was 23 when she released “Miseducation,” about her experiences as a young African-American woman, SZA was 26 when she dropped “Ctrl,” her own diary of being a 20-something black female.
Rapsody
As a teen, this Grammy-nominated rapper soaked up “Miseducation.” “I’d put that on, sit in the room and read the lyrics,” says Rapsody. “I’d never heard anything like it.” The raw honesty in Hill’s lyrics has set the gold standard for Rapsody’s own word game. Because of “Miseducation,” she says, “I tell myself that I have to tell my story in the most naked and pure way.”
Kendrick Lamar
“It was just genius to me,” Lamar told Complex about listening to “Miseducation” at a young age. In fact, he used “Miseducation”-style interludes on his 2012 breakthrough, “good kid, m.A.A.d city.” And after that LP launched Lamar into stardom, he sought advice from Hill. “I had a talk with Lauryn Hill,” he told XXL, “and she said, ‘Try to completely throw away your ego.’”
