"I USED TO LOVE HIM" LAURYN HILL FEAT. MARY J. BLIGE (1998)

The moment a song is born, the world is different. It’s now a part of our lives. We sing it in the shower. We dance to it at our wedding. We get pumped with it. We break up to it. We memorize it. We try to forget it. We rediscover it. This month, I’m joining Arron Wright’s Twitter music challenge: ##Popiversary2. Because why the hell not. Songs deserve their own anniversaries, too.

Year: 1998

Lauryn Hill has one studio album to her credit, but it’s one for the ages. A hugely ambitious effort, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill was a concept album and a personal memoir. It rewrote the rules and redefined genres like soul and hip hop. It had that rare quality of making your whole being move. Not just your body, but your mind and soul. There were enough songs to get two albums out of it. And one song deserves more credit than it gets. The second half kicks off with one of the greatest, most glorious breakup songs ever: “I Used to Love Him”.

The doo-wop influences are all over Miseducation, and especially apparent in the opening harmony on “I Used to Love Him”. It’s one of the most memorable and iconic musical moments on the album. But the highlight is the dual rant from Hill and Mary J. Blige. The breakups described in the lyrics weren’t debilitating, they were liberating. The more I listen to “I Used to Love Him” the more I come to a beautiful realization. That the song is less about breakups and more about reclaiming your identity.

“I CHOSE THE ROAD OF PASSION AND PAIN. SACRIFICED TOO MUCH. AND WAITED IN VAIN. GAVE UP MY POWER. CEASED BEING QUEEN.”

"INTRO" LAURYN HILL (1998)

Great album openers get the listeners to keep on listening. They can do this in any number of ways. Some openers set the tone by easing us in. Others jump right in and blow our minds from the very beginning. A great album opener isn’t an easy thing to create. More than a great song, it’s all about the sequence. Track 1 has to be the perfect starter. This month, I’m highlighting my favorites. #AlbumOpeningSongs

Lauryn Hill wasn’t the first to rewrite the rules of concept albums. But The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill was a huge step forward. It showed that a record could be just as effective of a vehicle for a story than a book or movie. The music on the album was phenomenal, but the storytelling was even more powerful. Miseducation was an album that could imagine in your head. Every time I listen to it, I can picture the classroom and the street corner with vivid detail. And Lauryn Hill made a powerful statement at the beginning, opting for an audio story approach rather than the traditional song format.

“Intro” is only 47 seconds long. It’s perhaps the least played track on the album. It contains no singing, no rapping, no melody. But it’s the track that sets the stage and holds the entire album together. “Intro” puts us inside a classroom at roll call. We hear the teacher calling out the students’ names one by one. One by one, they respond. But the child version of Lauryn Hill is missing. The teacher calls one, twice, three times. but no answer. This simple track makes the album title that much more poignant and lets us know from the outset it’s not just a catchy name. This entire album is one autobiographic story.

"EVERYTHING IS EVERYTHING" LAURYN HILL (1998)

I generally gravitate to the music first before the lyrics. But as a writer, I still marvel at well-spun verses and choruses. This month, I’m joining the music Twitter community in #SeptSongLyricChallenge

Day 13

It’s hard to think of another song based on two chords that’s as gripping as this one. Those two simple chords formed an irresistible, unforgettable hook, forged by John Legend on piano and the Indigo Quartet on strings. It’s the heartbeat of the song, But what made “Everything is Everything” even more unique was Lauryn Hill’s lyrics. Hill wrote the song for “everyone who struggles in their youth” and criss-crossed genres so seamlessly, going from R&B to hip hop to soul. Perhaps this is what makes The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill so appealing. It’s not simply a hip hop record, it’s so much more.

“Now everything is everything. What is meant to be, will be. After winter, must come spring. Change, it comes eventually.”

"EVERYTHING IS EVERYTHING" LAURYN HILL (1998)

Each day in November, I’m revisiting a song from the 90’s — a decade that was a sorta coming of age for me. In that span, I experienced high school, college and my time as a young single guy in New York City. It was a decade of ups and downs, and the music never stopped playing during that span. It was always there with me. #30DaysOf90sSongs

I was never a big fan of hip hop, mainly because I find original instrumentation to be much more satisfying than sample dropping and beats. That said, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill is probably one of my all-time favorite albums. As a concept album, it told a larger story that I could practically visualize in my head. This made the album much more appealing aside from having just individual standout tracks. Scenes of an inner city classroom danced in my head as one song blended into another. There isn’t a weak track on the album, but my favorite, by far, is “Everything is Everything”.

It’s hard to think of another song based on two chords that’s as gripping as this one. Those two simple chords formed an irresistible, unforgettable hook, forged by John Legend on piano and the Indigo Quartet on strings. It’s the heartbeat of the song, But what made “Everything is Everything” even more unique was the vocal performance. Lauryn Hill criss-crossed genres so seamlessly, going from R&B to hip hop to soul. Perhaps this is what makes The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill so appealing. It’s not simply a hip hop record, it’s so much more.

“I wrote these words for everyone who struggles in their youth, who won't accept deception, instead of what is truth.”

"I USED TO LOVE HIM" LAURYN HILL (1998)

For the second half of September, I’m putting my Mental Jukebox into a time machine, featuring the best songs on the best albums from the very best years of music. #70sThrough90sBestAlbum

Lauryn Hill has one studio album to her credit, but it’s one for the ages. A hugely ambitious effort, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill was a concept album and a personal memoir. It rewrote the rules and redefined genres like soul and hip hop. It had that rare quality of making your whole being move. Not just your body, but your mind and soul. There were enough songs to get two albums out of it. And one song deserves more credit than it gets. The second half kicks off with one of the greatest, most glorious breakup songs ever: “I Used to Love Him”.

The doo-wop influences are all over Miseducation, and especially apparent in the opening harmony on “I Used to Love Him”. It’s one of the most memorable and iconic musical moments on the album. But the highlight is the dual rant from Hill and Mary J. Blige. The breakups described in the lyrics weren’t debilitating, they were liberating. The more I listen to “I Used to Love Him” the more I come to a beautiful realization. That the song is less about breakups and more about reclaiming your identity.

“I chose the road of passion and pain. Sacrificed too much. And waited in vain. Gave up my power. Ceased being queen.”

"LOST ONES" LAURYN HILL (1998)

Inspired by Albumism, I’m doing my own version of Flying Solo with individual tracks. Band breakups and hiatuses are never fun, but these solo jams were defining moments in my life’s soundtrack.

The Fugees were two studio albums and done. And to this day, Lauryn Hill as a solo artist only has one. But it was an absolute legendary one. The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill was so exceptional it may have been impossible to follow up with another effort. Instead, Hill has recorded the occasional single and has toured sporadically.

Without that prolific catalog that other artists have in their name, a bigger exclamation point is put on songs like “Lost Ones”. It’s a hip-hop song loaded with attitude, rhythm and hooks. And then comes the kicker: the realization that “Lost Ones” seems to nod to the demise of the Fugees and call out her former bandmate Wyclef Jean. Which makes the song an even more powerful statement than what it exudes on the surface.

“It's funny how money change a situation. Miscommunication leads to complication. My emancipation don't fit your equation.”

"EVERYTHING IS EVERYTHING" LAURYN HILL (1998)

For Women’s History Month, I’m selecting some of my favorite songs from some of the most talented and influential women in music. From frontwomen to singer-songwriters to iconic performers, I’m picking one song a day on Mental Jukebox until the end of March.

“Everything is Everything” is a towering bridge spanning the musical landscape. It bridges the seminal work of the Fugees with the new, defining sound and themes of Lauryn Hill. It bridges multiple genres, from R&B to soul to hip hop. It also bridges us into the next decade with an early peek into John Legend, who played piano on the track as a 19 year old. The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill was a reeducation of what music can be. And “Everything is Everything” led the way.

“Now hear this mixture, where Hip Hop meets scripture. Develop a negative into a positive picture.”

"FORGIVE THEM FATHER" LAURYN HILL (1998)

What did you feel when you first heard this album? What did it make you think? How did it confirm or change what you believe? Chances are, it did something for you. I think Miseducation is one of the best concept albums ever recorded from beginning to end. It’s hard to pick just one song for my jukebox, but “Forgive Them Father” always struck me as going a level deeper. It’s Lauryn Hill trying to reconcile faith through her imperfections. It’s a peek behind the curtain of her soul. It’s the kind of song that leaves us wanting more solo stuff from Ms. Lauryn Hill. But we simply wait.

“Forgive us our trespasses. As we forgive those that trespass against us. Although them again we will never never never trust.”