★★★★★
1998 was, perhaps, the last great year for hip hop: 's Aquemini; and making their debuts; Mos Def and Talib Kweli teaming up for ; and reappearing with Moment of Truth. Then there was . At a time when the music was striking an interesting balance between serving its original audience, evolving its ideals and becoming part of the mainstream on its own terms, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill vastly raised that particular game...
- www.bbc.co.uk
2013-04-23
★★★★★
In case you missed it, a minor premillennial miracle occurredlast year: A member of the Fugees had a hit with a song thatwasn't a remake. That song, "The Sweetest Thing," appeared on thesoundtrack to love jones and was credited to the Refugee CampAll-Stars featuring Lauryn Hill. Undeniably, though, the star wasHill, who wrote and sang it with a sexy, morning-afterdrowsiness. Not merely a beautiful meditation, "The SweetestThing" announced that Hill had more to offer beyond boasting andremakes...
- ew.com
2011-03-03
★★★★★
No unplugged album I've ever heard comes anywhere near this one for stark sincerity. Hill strips her soul bare on this double CD, forcing listeners to revisit their conception of her. She speaks in her raspy voice of a rebirth, a personal reinvention and a return to the simple path toward God. In the beautiful, nine-minute long Oh Jerusalem she asks: "Can I even factor/ that I've only been an actor/ in this staged interpretation of this day...
- www.hour.ca
2010-11-09
★★★★★
The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill is the critically and commercially acclaimed solo album by female Fugee Lauryn Hill. Originally released on August 25th , 1998, it has been widely praised for its seamless fusion of R&B;, hip hop, reggae, gospel, and neo soul. The songs vary in style, but make for a cohesive album. In 1999, the album garnered no less than 10 (!) Grammy nominations at the 41st Grammy Awards...
- www.forcedexposure.com
2010-08-27
★★★★★
Twelve million album sales can do terrible things to a person's psyche. Witness Lauryn Hill, returning four years after her epoch-defining solo debut, 'The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill'. Another landmark album, then, another effortless combination of R&B;, hip-hop, reggae and socially astute thought? No chance. 'MTV Unplugged No. 2.0' is a landmark release, however: an album that takes self-consciousness about the perceived 'honesty' of art to startling new ends...
- uk.launch.yahoo.com
2010-08-07
★★★★★
Every Kanye West album is an act of self-worship. But on last year's Graduation, West not only wanted to be the greatest rapper in the world--he wanted to claim electro-pop and neo-soul too. On "Champion," he tells Lauryn Hill, "Who the kids gonna listen to?/I guess me if it isn't you." Which is exactly the kind of career pressure Hill has spent the last decade vigorously trying to shake off. If West thrives on being an icon, it seems to make Hill downright inconsolable...
- www.slantmagazine.com
2010-04-08
★★★★★
Whomever said that Lauryn's new album was going to be wack because it'smainly an album of song as opposed to spoken rhymes is about to choke on thosewords. The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill is a celebration of what it is to beLauryn Hill. It lets us enter her world on a musical mind trip, lets uslisten to who she is and what she has to say while letting us ponder our ownthings in this life...
- rapreviews.com
2010-02-13
★★★★★
Probably not the worst album ever released by an artist of substance--there are all those Elvis soundtracks. But in the running. Full-length double-CD of wordy strophic strolls that often last six, seven, eight minutes, accompanied solely by a solo guitar Hill can barely strum (the first finger-picked figure occurs on track 10, where it repeats dozens upon dozens of times, arghh)...
- www.robertchristgau.com
2009-07-10
★★★★★
P.C. record of the year--songs soft, singing ordinary, rapping skilled, rhymes up and down, skits de trop, production subtle and terrific ("Lost Ones," "Superstar").
- www.robertchristgau.com
2009-07-10
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