With her first and only solo album, Ms. Lauryn Hill altered the course of hip-hop and poetry. On 1998’s The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, she blended rap, neo-soul, and reggae into personal songs about heartbreak, philosophy, and faith—cinching her still-standing reputation as one of the most talented and versatile MCs of her era. At age 23, when she released Miseducation, she was already a hip-hop veteran as a member of the Fugees (alongside Wyclef Jean and Pras). Her voice led the group to fame in the mid-’90s on hits like “Killing Me Softly” and “Ready or Not.” After Hill struck gold and won Grammys with Miseducation, she followed it with her live album, MTV Unplugged No. 2.0, but has been performing only sporadically since then. She is also a poet and activist for numerous global causes. Below we share her fascinating performance at HBO’s now discontinued, poetry-focused program “Def Jam Poetry” hosted by a fellow hip-hop artist, Mos Def.
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