The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill

Rolling Stone (10/31/02, p.136) - Ranked # 32 in Rolling Stone's "Women in Rock: The 50 Essential Albums" - "...[The album] unites hip-hop, R&B and reggae under a single groove..." Rolling Stone (5/13/99, p.79) - Included in Rolling Stone's "Essential Recordings of the 90's." Rolling Stone (9/3/98, p.98) - 4 Stars (out of 5) - "...The sound of a woman who takes herself seriously....It's an album...that you could play at a family reunion, or any sort of multigenerational party, and get everyone bouncing and singing along, without anyone ever having to cringe..." Spin (9/99, p.132) - Ranked #28 in Spin Magazine's "90 Greatest Albums of the '90s." Spin (1/99, p.91) - Ranked #1 on Spin's list of "Top 20 Albums of '98." Spin (9/98, pp.179-180) - 9 (out of 10) - "...the confidence with which Hill sings and raps herself into black music's mammoth tradition...is balanced by the vulnerability of one of MISEDUCATION's two themes: a love gone wrong, untangling itself painfully and slow....Part of her greatness is that this genre-bender has never feared sentiment..." Entertainment Weekly (Spring 2000, p.166) - Ranked #2 in EW's "Top 10 albums of the '90s" Entertainment Weekly (9/4/98, pp.79-80) - "...Easily flowing from singing to rapping, evoking the past while forging a future of her own, Hill has made an album of often-astonishing power, strength, and feeling..." - Rating: A Q (p.121) - "[I]t only seems natural that Lauryn Hill's solo debut should mesh hip hop and soul to the point where it's hard to hear where one ends and the other begins..." Q (10/01, p.68) - Ranked #25 in Q's "Best 50 Albums of Q's Lifetime" Q (12/99, p.100) - Included in Q Magazine's "90 Best Albums Of The 1990s." Muzik (12/98, p.94) - 5 stars out of 5 - "...a superb collection of rhymes and beats and fresh lyrics that show how a good album should be recorded..." CMJ (1/11/99, p.3) - "...The jeep-bumping beats helped the album push platinum, but the potent, emotive songwriting made it an across-the-board pop milestone..." The Source (9/98, p.230) - "...Thoughtful, passionate, purposeful and unmistakably female....Small complaints, not even worth sweating when the overall emotional and musical effect is potent..." Rap Pages (11/98, p.130) - 4 (out of 5) - "...Choosing to display all of her talent, songwriting ability, Lauryn pushes rap aside, opting to sing more....Lauryn's attempt to intellectualize pain and love in word without sacrificing emotion in song is daring and creative..." Mojo (Publisher) (p.58) - Ranked #67 in Mojo's "100 Modern Classics" -- "Hill's debut dazzled, with old school soul, heart-breaking break-up songs and metaphysical raps providing an unbroken chain of dizzying highs."