Personnel includes: Lauryn Hill, Mary J. Blige, D'Angelo (vocals); Carlos Santana, Johari Newton, Robert Browne, Earl Chinna-Smith (guitar); Grace Paradise (harp); Dean Frasier (saxophone); Everol Ray (trumpet); Nambo Robinson (trombone); Tejumold Newton, John R. Stephens, Joe Wilson (piano); James Poyser (organ, Fender Rhodes, synthesizer bass, background vocals); Chris Meredith, Tom Barney, Matthew Rubano, Paul Fakhourie (bass); Jared "Chocolate" Crawford (drums); Ruby Byrd (percussion); Vada Nobles, Che Guevara (drum programming); Sabrina Johnston, Earl Robinson, Andrea Simmons, Kenny Bobien, Eddie Stockley, Jenni Fujita, Chuck Young, Rasheem "Kilo" Pugh, Fundisha Johnson, Lenesha Randolph, Ahmed Wallace (background vocals).
Engineers include: Tony Prendatt, Commissioner Gordon, Warren Riker.
THE MISEDUCATION OF LAURYN HILL won the 1999 Grammy Award for Album Of The Year and Best R&B Album. Lauryn Hill won the 1999 Grammy Award for Best New Artist. "Can't Take My Eyes Off Of You" was nominated for the 1999 Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. "Doo Wop (That Thing)" won the 1999 Grammy Award for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance and Best R&B Song. "Nothing Even Matters" was nominated for a 1999 Grammy for Best R&B Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocal. "Lost Ones" was nominated for a 1999 Grammy for Best Rap Solo Performance. "Everything Is Everything" was nominated for the 2000 Grammy Award for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance.
Though the Fugees had been wildly successful, and Lauryn Hill had been widely recognized as a key to their popularity, few were prepared for her stunning debut. The social heart of the group and its most talented performer, she tailored The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill not as a crossover record but as a collection of overtly personal and political statements; nevertheless, it rocketed to the top of the album charts and made her a superstar. Also, and most importantly, it introduced to the wider pop world an astonishingly broad talent. Hill's verses were intelligent and hardcore, with the talent to rank up there with Method Man. And for the choruses she could move from tough to smooth in a flash, with a vocal prowess that allowed her to be her own chanteuse (à la Mariah Carey). Hill, of Haitian heritage, rhymed in a tough Caribbean patois on the opener, "Lost Ones," wasting little time to excoriate her former bandmates and/or record-label executives for caving in to commercial success. She used a feature for Carlos Santana ("To Zion") to explain how her child comes before her career and found a hit single with "Doo Wop (That Thing)," an intelligent dissection of the sex game that saw it from both angles. "Superstar" took to task musicians with more emphasis on the bottom line than making great music (perhaps another Fugees nod), while her collaborations with a pair of sympathetic R&B superstars (D'Angelo and Mary J. Blige) also paid major dividends. And if her performing talents, vocal range, and songwriting smarts weren't enough, Hill also produced much of the record, ranging from stun-gun hip-hop to smoother R&B with little trouble. Though it certainly didn't sound like a crossover record, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill affected so many widely varying audiences that it's no surprise the record became a commercial hit as well as a musical epoch-maker. ~ John Bush
Lauryn Hill is far from miseducated, as her solo debut album proves. With both critical and popular acclaim from her affiliation with the Fugees, Lauryn uses THE MISEDUCATION OF LAURYN HILL to make a definitive individual statement. The focus here is love: love of self, love of her son, the love of her life, love of hip-hop. Her powerful lyrics and vocal talent put her in a class by herself.
One of hip-hop's more strong-willed artists, Lauryn's positivity defies the '90s materialistic rap scene. Although there is much more singing than rapping, Lauryn still covers plenty of hip-hop ground on THE MISEDUCATION, and her music falls into the rap category just as much as it does into R&B. Produced by Hill herself, this album gives us only a few guest artists (D'Angelo, Mary J.) but lots of Lauryn Hill. minimize