One of the biggest mysteries in music is how Lauryn Hill walked away from it all. After enjoying enormous success with her debut album The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, she never went back and made an album again. Well, that is if you don’t count her Unplugged joint.
Either way, fans have been asking for something new from L-Boogie and while she’s released miscellaneous singles, no project has been released.
Thanks to a new email interview for Rolling Stone’s “500 Greatest Albums” podcast on Amazon Music, Lauryn explains what happened with the label and why nothing followed up her debut. According to Hill, she was considered an enemy.
“The wild thing is no one from my label has ever called me and asked how can we help you make another album, EVER…EVER. Did I say ever? Ever!
With the Miseducation, there was no precedent. I was, for the most part, free to explore, experiment and express. After the Miseducation, there were scores of tentacled obstructionists, politics, repressing agendas, unrealistic expectations, and saboteurs EVERYWHERE. People had included me in their own narratives of THEIR successes as it pertained to my album, and if this contradicted my experience, I was considered an enemy.”
She also spoke on the album’s legacy and why it means so much:
“[I’ve] always been pretty critical of myself artistically, so of course there are things I hear that could have been done differently but the LOVE in the album, the passion, it’s intention is to me, undeniable.
I think my intention was simply to make something that made my foremothers and forefathers in music and social and political struggle know that someone received what they’d sacrificed to give us, and to let my peers know that we could walk in that truth, proudly and confidently,” she added. “At that time, I felt like it was a duty or responsibility to do so. … I challenged the norm and introduced a new standard. I believe the Miseducation did that and I believe I still do this–defy convention when the convention is questionable.”
If you’re missing some L-Boogie music in your life, you might as well go back and play the classic. There may never be another one like it.
OS REWIND: Mariah Carey – Save the Day (feat. Lauryn Hill)
OS REWIND: Rolling Stone Names Lauryn Hill’s ‘The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill’ the Best Rap Album of All Time