Record That Changed My Life
In the fourth episode of JOE’s Record That Changed My Life series, rapper Lecrae delves deep into the ocean that is Lauryn Hill’s The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill and tells us what makes it so special.
Released in 1998, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill is the former Fugees singer/rapper’s only solo studio album. Winner of five Grammy Awards, it’s sold over 19 million copies worldwide. Featuring the hits “Doo Wop (That Thing)”, “Everything Is Everything” and “Ex-Factor” (which turned out to be about her former bandmate Wyclef Jean), The Miseducation of… is poetic, spiritual, loving, educational, and a celebration of blackness. It’s arguably one of the most important Hip Hop albums ever created.
Lecrae is not a gospel rapper, he’s a rapper who found God. A Grammy winner in 2013 for his album Gravity, he followed it up with Anomaly in 2014 and it became the first album to ever top both the Billboard 200 and the Gospel chart simultaneously. Influenced by a lot of southern artists, including Scarface and Outkast, his other influences are 2Pac, Nas, JAY-Z, and of course, Lauryn Hill.
Discussing how The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill changed his life, Lecrae gives a very colourful description of what the album represents to him. Also admitting to not knowing “Ex-Factor” was about Wyclef until much later down the line, he also breaks down the song “To Zion” and how a song about the birth of Hill’s first child became a big part in the birth of his own child.
“It’s transcendent, you know what I mean? It’s really transcendent. It’s music. It’s good music. Like what kinda artist is Prince? Is he R&B? Is he pop? Is he soul? Is he rock? He’s just Prince, you know what I’m saying? This is just The Miseducation of…, you know what I mean?”
Watch Lecrae’s Record That Changed My Life below:
Lecrae’s album All Things Work Together is out now. Listen to it here.
