She Begat This: 20 Years of the Miseducation of Lauryn Hill

by Joan Morgan

An NPR 2018 Great Read

Celebrate the twentieth anniversary of the acclaimed and influential debut album The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill with this eye-opening and moving exploration of Lauryn Hill and her remarkable artistic legacy.

Released in 1998, Lauryn Hill’s first solo album is often cited by music critics as one of the most important recordings in modern history. Artists from Beyoncé to Nicki Minaj to Janelle Monáe have claimed it as an inspiration, and it was recently included in the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress, as well as named the second greatest album by a woman in history by NPR (right behind Joni Mitchell’s Blue ).

Award-winning feminist author and journalist Joan Morgan delivers an expansive, in-depth, and heartfelt analysis of the album and its enduring place in pop culture. She Begat This is both an indelible portrait of a magical moment when a young, fierce, and determined singer-rapper-songwriter made music history and a crucial work of scholarship, perfect for longtime hip-hop fans and a new generation of fans just discovering this album.

Genres: Nonfiction, Music, Biography, Feminism, Hip Hop, History, African American

176 pages, Hardcover

Published August 7, 2018

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

Joan Morgan is an award-winning journalist and author and a provocative cultural critic. A pioneering hip-hop journalist and entertainment writer, she began her professional writing career freelancing for The Village Voice before having her work published by Vibe, Interview, MS, More, Spin, Giant and numerous other publications. Formerly the Executive Editor of Essence and one of the original staff writers at VIBE, Joan Morgan is the author of When Chickenheads Come Home to Roost: My Life as a Hip-Hop Feminist (1999). Her work appears in numerous college texts, as well as books on feminism, music and African-American culture. She is currently a visiting instructor at Duke University where she teaches "The History of Hip-Hop Journalism".

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

Reviews

[Andre(Read-A-Lot) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolute fire! Whose idea was it to conceive of this project with Joan as scribe? A perfect pairing. Joan Morgan and Lauryn Hill. This is Davis and Coltrane. Lennon and McCartney. Shaquille and Kobe. Right from the start this book screams greatness. Kierna Mayo sets the table with a lavishly elegant forward and Joan Morgan takes the assist and keeps the ball moving forward with the benefit of 20-20 hindsight. Joan is both point guard and closer dishing out assists and receiving them from the talent she pulls into the project. In looking back, Joan Morgan is razor sharp in her vision and brings an equally keen prose to the page in this exceptional reminder and explainer of why/how Lauryn impacted the culture and became iconic in the process. Joan Morgan pays both homage to L-Boogie and offers apology to Ms. Lauryn Hill for being complicit in the demand brigade. Give us more! Do more! Be more! Save the hip-hop genre, save music, save us! That’s a lot to ask of a 22-year-old, even one as fierce as Lauryn Hill. “Then with gratitude and with ignorance, we did what we do with celebrities: We turn mortals into gods—queens, if they’re only women—and then summarily pick them apart at the first hint of disappointment. So we told Hill she was royalty and crowned her the next Nina Simone...... As black women, we really should have known better, but instead we did to Lauryn what the world does to us. Asks us to save it and when we do? It asks us to save it again.”

In attempting to dissect Lauryn Hill’s sound and identity, Joan Morgan writes
“Lauryn Hill is strictly African American. There was no ackee and saltfish and boiled dumpling cooking in the Sunday morning kitchen of her childhood. No parents rousing her out of sleep with sharply punctuated patois. Instead, she deliberately wrote herself into the discourse of diaspora, drew on the global nature of black music, and fashioned herself a citizen of the world. She took from that legacy what she wanted and asked no one’s permission, in part because she treated hip hop itself for what it is—a Caribbean-American art form.”

The exploration of what made Lauryn special goes beyond her work on the now classic album, The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill. Her influence on fashion, her comfort in her own skin, the original Black girl rocking her Black magic. And her not bending or blending, she said take me as I am, and America did. “Remember when you looked up and it seemed like black culture just became culture? For better or worse, that was our export.” —Kierna Mayo, from the foreword. She graced the covers of many magazines, a failure to include some of those visuals, is an unfortunate missed opportunity.

Joan is spacious on Lauryn’s impact and she shares the pages, her pages with some contemporary luminaries. So we get great commentary from the likes of Michaela Angela Davis, an image activist who opines, in reference to Lauryn’s approach to fashioning her look; “Let me clarify that. Overall, I think Lauryn’s muse was blackness: Black people, the black community black history, black politics, black thought. When you are pulling on blackness in such a full way you don’t need anybody to tell you what to wear. You just need them to help you get the visual proof of it.”

Beverly Bond, of Black Girls Rock fame weighs in, “We live in a time that’s so dismissive of legacy. It’s an age where people are so quick [to dismiss] the greatness [of] those that came before them. There are new rappers who now say that Biggie and Tupac didn’t matter and that’s some dumb shit that’s really dangerous—especially for black people. When we erase our origins, we risk losing our culture and we leave it vulnerable to other people who want to just pick it up and run away with it.”

Through the force of Joan’s writing and memory you feel the impact of Lauryn Hill even if you weren’t around when Lauryn arrived initially, either because you were too young or you were in another world. I was fortunate enough to be present at Lauryn’s landing and being born and raised in Jersey, I, we took a special pride in all that she was. She represented, and we were proud! Joan Morgan captures that feeling in her writing and the effect of drawing on others who witnessed the landing in real time adds depth to what I suppose will be one of the best books of the year. If you are looking for “what happened to Lauryn, did she lose her mind” type salaciousness this is not that book. This is a celebration of greatness and dopeness! I suggest you buy this book and cue up the album while reading. You do have the album, Cd, tape, digital download? Right. This book serves as reminder to those who bore witness and an induction and introduction to L-Boogie for the newbies who didn’t have the privilege to be present in 1998 for the touchstone cultural moment she represented so well. Thanks to Atria Books and Netgalley for an advanced DRC. Book is available Aug. 7, 2018. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️‼️

[Amaka · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lovers of hip-hop, soul, the 90’s & all-around badass women.. this one is for you. We’ve praised Lauryn and crucified her in the same breath. Joan breaks down Hill’s most prized body of work so eloquently, flaws and all . 👏🏿👏🏿

[Michelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Joan Morgan is an award winning journalist and cultural critic. One of the original staff writers for Vibe, her work has also appeared in More, Ms, and Giant magazines. Over the course of her career she also served as editor for Spin and Essence. Morgan is probably best known for her 1999 work When Chickenheads Come Home to Roost: A Hip-Hop Feminist Breaks It Down which examines the strange dichotomy of feminists within the male-dominated world of hip-hop.

How is a woman supposed to handle such dilemmas with finesse?

She Begat This: 20 Years of the Miseducation of Lauryn Hill not only speaks to the musical genius of Lauryn Hill but also places her art into context within the political and social landscape of that time. Historical influences are examined and Hill's lasting impact on hip-hop, feminism and black culture are considered. Written in a style that is itself lyrical, She Begat This includes interviews with notable Black authors and feminists Beverly Bond, Michaela Angela Davis, dream hampton, Tarana Burke, and Karen Good Marable.

As a woman who has grown up on the music of Lauryn Hill, I can testify to the power of her work and the lasting impression that it has had on own my life. To Zion was a rallying cry, therapy at one of the most vulnerable times of my life. This was why I was delighted to come across this title. Now that I have read She Begat This I feel honored to be one of the first to read this critical work. Special thanks to NetGalley, Atria 37 INK and Joan Morgan for a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

[Ebony · Rating 2 out of 5]

She Begat This was fine. I mean, it accomplished what it set out do. I just wanted it to do something different. I ride for Joan Morgan. Chickenheads changed my life as did Miseducation. "I Used to Love Him" was a huge part of my hip hop work. Naturally, when I read the Essence excerpt, I had high hopes for the book. When I acquired it, I was disappointed that it was so small. When I opened it, I was surprised to find myself in a Morgan memory and not a Hill one. Then I realized She Begat This isn't a book about Lauryn Hill's Miseducation. It's a book about people who have opinions about Miseducation. Morgan is kicking it with her friends and reminiscing about the album which is fine, but mostly hagiography. Hill was genius. Hill was representation. Hill was messy but aren't we all? (To which my answer is no, but I digress.) Hill can do whatever she wants because she once was. There's not much a reader can do with this but uh huh her way through it until it's over. There's no wrestling with big ideas. There's no in depth analysis of the album or Hill's representation. There are no quotes from Hill. Of course she's not interviewing now but she did in the past and Morgan could have pulled them. There's no insightful analysis. I'm still waiting for the book I want to read about Hill. Something real, something balanced, something beyond the essentialist all brown skinned black girls were waiting until Hill told them they could arrive. I was one of those girls Morgan writes about who found herself through Hill but not in the ways she describes it here. In an attempt to make Hill accessible 20 years later, the book manages to obscure her through the opinions of Morgan's friends many of whom (dream hampton as exception) see Lauryn as larger than life opposed to a very, very, very complicated one. 

[chantel nouseforaname · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a perfect celebration of the legendary record that is the Miseducation of Lauryn Hill and of Ms. Lauryn Hill, in all her humanness. Yo, I'm shook that I didn't read this earlier.

Joan Morgan captures what the game-changing, Grammy-winning, record-breaking album meant to women everywhere, and Black women in particular, upon it's release. Ms. Hill was simultaneously embracing the culture, scolding the culture, living in and illuminating the culture and yet rebuking the standards set by all cultures, white, black, urban, hip-hop or otherwise.

I love Joan Morgan's deep dive into what Lauryn Hill captures, represents and has represented surrounding Black beauty, womanhood and artistry. I love that Morgan uses the emergence of the Miseducation to highlight how Lauryn in her efforts as a successful artist was actively standing opposed to the adverse stereotypes at the time perpetuated by politicians and media, re: young black women. Morgan also points out the oppressive and restrictive dynamics that rear their ugly head when you're a successful woman breaking barriers and widening the space for other women and other artists to come through in their fullness, in their Blackness.

I love how Morgan highlighted how Ms. Hill was able to successfully merge hip-hop, R&B and reggae music in a way that was authentic and passionate. She opened up the door to a cross-cultural musical exchange that has been utilized by anyone who's anyone afterwards: Rihanna, Beyonce, Kanye West, Nas, Jay-Z, Kendrick Lamar. I love Morgan enthusiastically discussed the influence of the Miseducation in shaping a legion of albums rooted in uplifting & centering Black women/womanhood in particular, albums like A Seat at the Table, and CTRL. It wasn't all Hill, but it's the marketability and her transcendence into the mainstream that broke down the door for many others.

I loved the clear, and understated, depictions of the ways that she has influenced other artists and what the decade by decade evolution of women in hip-hop, post the Miseducation, has looked like. Gotta pay homage to the QUEEN tho.

Oh yes and then there's that - Queendom rhetoric. Joan Morgan questions what the public, the fans, the media has done, what role we have played in attempting to keep Lauryn Hill in a box for our own comfort. Morgan examines the role we have all played in Lauryn's ability to feel like she can or can't progress past the Miseducation. The new (I think HBO) doc Framing Britney Spears shows how the fans and media in the late 90s through to the mid-00s have harmed artists, and still can harm artists to this day with their exploitation and down-talking. A lot of what happened to Britney has happened to many of artists, including Lauryn Hill and the late great Whitney Houston.

Joan Morgan touches on the MTV Live Unplugged situation/debacle (depending on who you ask). I, for one, really loved her MTV Live Unplugged album. I don't know if I'm biased because I'm Jamaican, but I could see, I feel like anyone could see, what happened with that release after the Miseducation. That was a gift in my opinion to the Black youth. That album has the same teeth that Miseducation had but was emotional and raw. The veneer was gone, and Ms. Hill had presented an open and deconstructed version of herself that took us right back to the reality. Presenting more as a struggling artist living in her truth, perfectly accepting of who she is, who we all are at the base of it. People wanted the polished Lauryn and she was giving them none of it, stating on the record "Fantasy is what people want, but reality is what people need and I have just retired from the Fantasy part" to resounding applause. I think that if she was a man, that whole album would have been accepted differently. Fight me.

Those who know what she was talking about on that record, those who know the levels of intensity it is to go out on MTV and put out that music know that she gave us so much on that Live recording. A journeywoman, Lauryn crossed genres and exposed us to the depths of her amalgamated and various diaspora experiences. All of which was lost in (purposefully lost in) translation to the larger masses. Joan Morgan discusses the effects of the MTV Unplugged album on Lauryn's post-Miseducation marketability and reach. Sidebar: I honestly listen to that album more that Miseducation and have for years.

I loved this book with my entire heart, even the parts where she critiqued what it takes for someone to achieve legendary status. Can a person with one studio album transcend into legendary status? That's a point of much debate. However, if you ask me - if the quality is anything close to what Lauryn Hill offered up with the Miseducation, then yes, yes the fuck they can.


Further reading: I wrote about my experience growing up to the Miseducation of Lauryn Hill & Erykah Badu's Mama's Gun, and how I recognized their impact on myself and my family, decades later while listening to SZA's CTRL. You can read that on my blog by clicking here.

[Sidik Fofana · Rating 5 out of 5]

SIX WORD REVIEW: Got sad for what once was.

[Kenneth Wade · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Lauryn exemplified our complexity and how those complexities could complement each other. Black women are dynamic. We can be sexy. And tomboy. And radical. And church girl. And visionary. With wizardry.”

She Begat This is an insightful and thought provoking examination of Lauryn Hill’s only album and, to an extent, the rest of her career. The author and those whom she interviews provide reflections upon music, culture, feminism, blackness, motherhood, and placing artists on pedestals.
The book does not often go in-depth about musical or lyrical content or the songs themselves, which I had sort of expected, but I still found it very rewarding. Reading this has made me appreciate the album even more and I look forward to my next listen.

“...this was the reign of the cocky female emcee in hip hop, the era of Foxy Brown and Lil’ Kim.... bragging about fucking and whatnot. That was cool and fun, but Lauryn was something in hip hop we hadn’t seen. She was bringing a truth and a perspective to hip hop that I’d never heard before. She got at your heartstrings. Who writes about this? Who talks about this kind of black girl pain? That was reserved for girlfriends and journals.”

Note on my personal organizational choices:
This book also includes a few references to queerness and heteronormativity, but I have not tagged it as “queer” because it was not significantly queer or focused on a queer topic.

4.5 out of 5

[Traci Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some of this book is awesome really great insights. Amazing women of hip hop weighing in on Hill and her importance in the culture. Some of it reads as 40-50 year old black women laying claim to all good black stuff and over indulging on their responsibility for the culture. It’s a mixed bag. The context stuff is great.

[Liz Kay · Rating 4 out of 5]

I got the audiobook from the library, so didn't realize how short this is.
It's very short.
It's under 4 hours.
There isn't anything in this book that doesn't belong, but I would have liked more depth and breadth in all areas.
That said, I really liked it.

[Dre · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thoroughly enjoyed this book!

Full review on my blog: http://www.soshewritesbymissdre.com/2...

[Tasha · Rating 5 out of 5]

The soundtrack of a generation. Awesome playlist at the end of the book.

[Antoine Bandele · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 it was a’ight. More journalistic in its review of the album than I thought it would be. I was looking for something more personal. But it feels like the POV is an observer looking in rather than someone in Miss Hill’s inner circle.

[claire]

I really just sat down and skimmed this entire book for research for an essay I’m writing but I kept finding myself wanting to slow down and really read the whole thing because it was very interesting and I actually learned a lot. I’m not rating it since I didn’t truly read it but I have a feeling I’ll come back to it somewhat soon :)

[Charlene · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was the book I didn't even know I needed in my life. Journalist Joan Morgan mashed up a biography of Lauryn Hill with a lesson on black history. Morgan tackles the issue of systemic racism in our justice system, how clack families have existed in America throughout history, the struggles of women in America, particularly the struggles of black women. 

Did I, along with some many people, think that Lauryn Hill was a little too full of herself when she went from being Lauryn Hill to, "Call me Miss Hil,l" and never showing up on time for concerts or interviews because her time was more valuable than other people's time? I didn't get too caught up in it and I focused more on her talent, but I definitely was affected by how the public at large saw and labeled her. 

A few months ago I was compelled to look up Wyclef and saw his Wendy Williams interview about his tell-all book. I remember feeling ill and thinking I would have zero interest in reading his twisted version of who Lauryn Hill was. So, I searched for a better source on Hill and found this gem! 

Morgan detailed not only Hill's life and music, she ripped every aspect apart and focused on what it was like for Hill to have collaborated with Wyclef and not receive her fair share of credit and how that might have affected Hill going forward in her career. Morgan also included a deep dive into the politics in America that preceded Hill's fame and took place during and after Hill's fame. This created a sweeping narrative of what it was like for all black women in America over the many decades that have led to our present day, in which Cardi B became the first female solo rapper with a number 1 album since Hill's Miseducation in 1998. 

The only thing I didn't love about this book was that Morgan's discussion of 3 strikes might have been a little too academic in its language. The 3 strikes law was one of the most devastating laws to affect the black community. Politicians printed out huge pictures of poor little white girls Polly Klass and Kimber Reynolds, who were killed by ****white men***, and then printed posters of Willie Horton, a black man who was out on furlough when he raped a woman and killed a white male. The image of a scary black man, Willie Horton, became the motivation to pass the 3 strikes law. They used the young white girls to conjure up fear and hate. I certainly hate the people who raped and killed innocent little girls. Who wouldn't hate such a person? Who would want such a person out in the general public to harm people? But they certainly didn't post the pictures of the white men who killed the very girls politicians used to generate interest for their 3 strikes bill. They used a black man, and when they got enough people to sign on, they didn't use the 3 strikes law equally among white people and black people. They used the 3 strikes law alarmingly more often against black people for **nonviolent** offenses. This resulted in making a law that was supposed to apply equally to black and white offenders and was supposed to help capture and cage violent offenders, to get them off our streets.
 
In reality, 3 strikes has been used on a much larger percentage of the black population than it has been used on the white population. Worse, black people are more often in jail for **life** for ridiculous offenses such as stealing DVDs from Walmart, for possessing a few joints, or other non violent behaviors. White people who engaged in the same behaviors-- stealing or doing drugs-- were significantly charged less often and escaped a life sentence. The war on drugs and the three strikes law helped white Americans continue to control the bodies of black American's long after slavery ended. This is a huge deal and I am really happy Morgan included it in this book. I definitely think anyone interested in this subject should read Michelle Alexander's The New Jim Crow. 

Thank you Joan Morgan for opening my eyes to some misguided ideas I still had rambling around in my brain. I love books that make me reexamine what I thought were progressive ideas and showing me a deeper level of things about which I still know so little. Tiny ideas or feelings about the way Wyclef talked in his interview really bothered me, but I don't know that I had enough information about  things to really put into words why it bothered me so much. Morgan crystalized these buds of an understanding and made me want to keep learning more about what I don't understand. What a great book.

[Trish (readtmc) · Rating 4 out of 5]

****1/2 for content
***1/2 for structure

The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill was part of the soundtrack to my formative years. I remember her as a critical darling. She won all the awards. The album was a PHENOMENON.

My fond memories of the music and times in which Miseducation came out plus Bookstagram brought me to Joan Morgan’s She Begat This: 20 Years of The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill. If you’re looking for a musical critique of each song from this album and/or a titillating behind-the scenes look at its production, you’re not going to find much of that here. Journalist, cultural critic, and hip-hop feminist Joan Morgan’s approach towards Hill the musician and the woman herself with regards to representation, race, and gender is analytical and complex, with a conversational tone, making parts a delight to read.

My nostalgia kicked in with the mention of familiar musicians and songs of the time, including an informed, enlightened takes on Doo Wop’s lyrics and music video and comparing her style to fellow female emcees Lil’ Kim and Foxy Brown. What was unfamiliar to me that She Begat This brought to my attention was the meaning of Lauryn Hill herself in relation to the black female audience and showing them their possibilities. In terms of aesthetics, we had not seen anyone that looked like Hill on major magazine covers before Miseducation. Then, Hill’s pregnancy reflected the ongoing struggle between marriage, motherhood and career. Also fans, perhaps unfairly, projected what they wanted her to be as a black female role model, deeming her as “goddess”, “savior of hip-hop,” and “the next Nina Simone.” Overall, Lauryn Hill shifted a culture. Despite Lauryn Hill not yet releasing a follow-up album, I’ve developed a deeper appreciation for her legacy. Morgan convincingly shows us why.

My only minor complaint about She Begat This are related to structure. There is a disjoint between several interviews, some included in the text and others as a separate section, that are used to set the landscape for what it was like for women in hip-hop in the late 90s. Ultimately, if you loved Lauryn Hill and this iconic album and want a critical analysis of its impact beyond the music, read this book.

[Josimar C. · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book about one of the most influential ALBUMS on it's 20th year anniversary? Yes sign me up! This album has a very special place in my heart as a Jamaican, and as a man who loves music. When this album dropped I was a barley old enough to walk myself to school, but I remember hearing my mom sing every single word, track one to track fifteen, every Saturday, whilst doing our cleaning. Joan Morgan, provides us with a deep dive into the cultural impact of The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, while allowing the reader to get a glimpse into the life of Ms. Hill. This was a fantastic breakdown of just how important this album was to the cultural of hip hop and black feminism. For those who consider themselves fans of hip hop, She Begat This, is a must read.

[kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's ok. I was initially excited about this book, but as I began to read it, I realized that it wasn't really resonating with me. Not because I don't like Joan Morgan (I do) or I don't like Lauryn Hill (I do). Perhaps it was the writing style, which read too much like a magazine article and got so boring at times that I found myself skipping pages. There's also the not-so-flattering comments made about Lauryn from some of the people interviewed in the book that I could have done without, especially for a critique that's supposed to be a compliment to the woman who made the very album they claim to love so much.

I gave this three stars. I'm definitely not saying don't read it, but as for myself, it just wasn't my cup of tea.

[Julia · Rating 4 out of 5]

An obvious must-read for any and all lovers of Lauryn Hill and Miseducation. She Begat This is a quick, insightful investigation into Hill’s influence immediately pre- and post- Miseducation, and a look into how her disappearance from public life affects our understanding of her cultural significance today. Like other reviewers, I did feel the book was a little uneven and too short; that said, Morgan’s love for Hill is apparent, and her interviews with other black women contemporaries who came up with Ms.Hill’s music are gems to read, and the bedrock of She Begat This.

[Sarah Reicker · Rating 4 out of 5]

A short banger of a book. Loved that it was written by smart women who love hiphop, and that it included numerous conversations about feminism, black identity and femininity. I also appreciated that the author gave a critical analysis of the Miseducation album instead of just blowing smoke up Lauryn Hill's ass. Complete with a great play list that a top female DJ put together to honor Hill's legacy, this book is an all around great read for anyone who appreciates music, fashion, and politics.

[Will Fonseca · Rating 3 out of 5]

Three stars is generous here, but the fact is that any book on Lauryn Hill and Miseducation sort of enters the discussion with three stars because of how interesting its subject is. Morgan spends most of the book asking friends about their memories of encountering and living with Miseducation as younger women. It's perhaps a credit to Morgan (and certainly to Lauryn) that most of the reviews of this book here begin with the reviewer remembering her/his own first encounter with Miseducation. Such is the power of the album, I guess, that it makes people remember, usually warmly, where they were in their lives when they began listening it.

I was way too young in 1998 (four) to have any memory of Lauryn Hill or Miseducation or anything like that. (And, in reality, even if I were, say, 10 and able to remember that stuff, my parents weren't exactly cranking Lauryn Hill around the house.) So I remember first encountering The Fugees when I was a sophomore in high school and I guess trying to get into hip-hop? I don't know. That doesn't sound right. I don't know why I started listening to them... All I remember is laying on a bed in my grandfather's house one summer and listening to The Score twice through without stopping and being amazed 1) that the guy wailing "hell no motherfucker" on "Mista Mista" was the same guy that was in the Shakira music video dancing in some weird abandoned carnival basement, and 2) by Lauryn's verses in the first three songs after the intro track. So after abusing that album over the next few days I moved onto Miseducation, which I liked even better, even if it never matched the same bite as the "Ready or Not" verse. Miseducation was soulful, sad, angry, celebratory, and, eventually, at peace with itself. The songs that I remember loving early were the sad sounding ones, "To Zion" and "Nothing Even Matters" and "Tell Him." I think this is because I didn't really have friends who liked the album so I never really got to experience the, say, communal experience of listening to "Lost Ones" at a crowded party, as Morgan talks about. But I remember loving the line "How beautiful if nothing more than to wait at Zion's door," not really knowing what it means or why I liked it, but rather just liking the way it sounds, like an old English poet, but sang in Lauryn's husky Jersey alto. And I still like that line and song today as much as I did then, even if it's centered around a religious move I can't relate to. (As I got older and got way more atheist I went through a little bit of an eye-rolling at Lauryn's obsessive, and, as Morgan's goddaughter says at the beginning of the book, "judgmental" religious convictions. But that didn't really last. A beautiful song is a beautiful song.)

Anyways, Lauryn is so mired in mystery and multiplicity that any book on her and the legacy of that album has to be engaging. I appreciated Morgan's history on female rappers at the time, and how Lauryn diverged from Lil' Kim and Foxy Brown, including with the hair. I appreciated also the breakdown of Clinton welfare and criminal justice reforms and their effects on black women in the 90s; that's a contextualizing approach to Miseducation and Lauryn's career that I'd never read or considered. Lastly, I appreciated the honesty of the binary relationship between L-Boogie and Ms. Hill, how it's difficult to draw a straight line from the former to the latter. I saw Lauryn (Ms. Hill) at the Apollo this year and everything she is known for was true that night, the lateness and the sped up tempo. And, as dumb as it sounds, it was good to hear other people in the book say that they don't need to see her live again. I left that night at the Apollo being glad I paid the hefty price for the ticket and can now tell the story, but it wasn't exactly enjoyable. I thought it was because I didn't grow up with it, or because when I did hear it I was a 15 year old white boy (and now a 24 year old white guy) for whom it couldn't possibly mean what it meant for others. That all still may be true, but I'm not the only one who saw her and was like, "yea the next time she's here I'm good." Does that diminish Miseducation? Certainly not. Where Morgan's book could have done more is in exploring that sea of questions between L-Boogie and Ms. Hill. She does do it at times, especially in the latter half of the book, but I finished it wanting more.

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

She Begat This reads as part love letter, part in-depth analysis of Lauryn Hill's 1998 solo debut. As someone who deeply loves and remembers the release of that album, reading through this book was both nostalgic (especially with references made to musical artists, groups, and songs that were concurrently popular at the time) and intriguing, in the ways in which the text examined the fortuitousness of the album's release through the lens of musical and even political events.

Morgan dialogs with industry savants, hip hop producers, editors, and journalists to unravel the complexities of the album's essence and the sweepingly affecting impact it had and continues to have on its audience upon its release and in the 20 years since. There was much I appreciated in Morgan's analysis, everything from Lauryn's sanctified image and persona juxtaposed in sharp contrast with those of other popular black female emcees at the time (p.20, 33, 75, 118), to the unexpected correlation to the long-term detrimental impact of policy decisions on black women (p.78-86). Overall, I appreciated Morgan's candor and opinions on things even outside the scope of just Miseducation. For example, her tongue-in-cheek references to millenials and contemporary realities (p.131-2), the absence of which provided Lauryn Hill and the album the perfect storm, so-to speak, to thrive and endure.

Even in aspects I didn't agree with (like the repeated comparisons with Solange, - p.119-20, 124, 147-48 - and reference to her Seat at the Table as "[this] generation's Miseducation of Lauryn Hill" p.46-7), I valued Morgan's perspective and her illustration of a comprehensive tableau of Miseducation's purpose, impact, and legacy, while also addressing the stigmas and preconceived notions society has attached not only to the album, but to the artist who created it. The comparisons tossed around with regard to Lauryn emulating traits of professed timeless artists like Stevie Wonder, Donny Hathaway, Prince, and Nina Simone (p.88, 109, 117, 122) and how this has set an impossible trajectory and, in essence, left no room for her to viably grow and develop as an artist also rang true (p.116-7, 119-20). In this way, Morgan also addresses what's become an outcry for Lauryn to produce a worthy follow-up to Miseducation, in spite of the fact that she's already left her mark and legitimately doesn't "owe" us anything more (p.123).

I found She Begat This to be refreshing and thought-provoking. Everything from the book's clever title to the ways in which Morgan succeeds in humanizing Lauryn down from the echelons her debut aversely catapulted her to. It's given me a revitalized perspective on an album I've loved for most of my life.


Noteworthy passages and quotes:

"There's still a constant push for black women and girls to be contained...Lauryn showed the world what black girls can do and that others simply can't. Kylie Jenner can't fucking ever look like Lauryn Hill. That's triggering to some people. That's because there's a difference between creating culture and appropriating culture. Shade intended." (p.58-9)

" 'The late '90s [were] an exciting time in hip-hop, one that was coming off of a very violent period...I think it's important to remember the climate Missy, Erykah, and Lauryn entered in. They came in counter to this violence and extreme misogyny...And then you had Lauryn. She was amazing. She could rhyme. She could sing. She was beautiful to look at. And she took herself seriously at that time when we, as women in hip hop, needed that. We needed to see this deeply chocolate woman with such a command of her body, who could sing and rhyme as well as any of these boys...She also made herself really vulnerable in the music. We needed that too.' " (p.61-2)

"I often think about the kind of artist Hill could have become if she'd allowed herself to be free of our expectations. Instead we put her up on a pedestal and then ordered her to remain there. And she did. Stuck. Much to her detriment and ours." (p.119)

"There's a critical part of The Miseducation we seem to forget. The album at its core was always about love, both the deciphering of it and the search for it. It's significant then, that during that opening snippet when the teacher...reads Lauryn's name during roll call, she is the one student who is absent from class. Insistent and rebellious, she opted out of that protective environment and chose instead to learn those difficult lessons while being out in the world. "That's the reason I think Miseducation still holds up," says Jayson Jackson." (p.120)

" 'A lot of people felt like Lauryn was telling us who she was on that record, but I'd argue that she was telling us who she wanted to be. You're hearing the hopes, dreams, and desires of a person both in a worldly and a spiritual sense. That's why we named it The Miseducation.' " (p.120)

"Miseducation...turned a corner and shifted the culture. It was unlike anything that was happening at that moment. Lauryn made herself so vulnerable that it was super-empowering and that uplifted women. But Lauryn also disappeared, and I think there's a tendency to mythologize people who are gone too soon. We saw that with Biggie and Tupac. Lauryn was in her prime...When you disappear, people tend to romanticize who you are and what you can do." (p.121)

"We live in a time that's so dismissive of legacy. It's an age where people are so quick [to dismiss] the greatness [of] those that came before them. There are new rappers who say that Biggie and Tupac didn't matter and that's some dumb shit. That's really dangerous - especially for black people. When we erase our origins, we risk losing our culture and we leave it vulnerable to other people who want to just pick it up and run away with it." (p.136)

[Hannah Notess · Rating 4 out of 5]

"I would like another Miseducation, but Lauryn might not be capable of doing that. That happens to a lot of artists. It's an unfair burden. But I can leave it there because nothing in the world can unmake that one album. She gave it to us. That's her gift to the world." --Akiba Solomon

"Lauryn Hill is an artist who does what she wants to do. She chooses whether or not to share her work with the world or keep it to herself. That kind of respect for her own genius is something we all need to appreciate." --Beverly Bond

So many powerful quotes and reflections in this book, which is a reported/curated/critical conversation on the legacy of Lauryn Hill's . It was a little more academic than I was expecting but very readable, and left me with an even deeper appreciation for one of my all-time favorite works of art.

[Andrea · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill is one of my all time favorite albums. I don't know how many times over the past 21 years I've listened to it; I know all the lyrics, the roll call, the beats, the bells. I was so excited to read this book. But it wasn't written for me.

Joan Morgan is black feminist writer who coined the term "hip-hop feminism". To write music criticism as a woman is amazing, to write as a black woman is even more rare. She breaks down the legacy of Miseducation for black women and travels back in time to 1998 and the prescient influence Ms. Hill had on music, fashion, black hair, Beyonce, Rhianna, Solange, Cardi B.

She interviews a host of black feminists for their takes on Miseducation (lots of love, some passes) but doesn't interview Ms. Hill herself. I learned a lot.

I'm trying to read more about the music I love this year, and glad this helped get the year going.

[Nikiverse · Rating 4 out of 5]

I graduated high school in 1999 and Lauryn Hill was hella 'mazing back in the day. Joan Morgan really gets into the WHYs of Lauryn Hill being such an important figure in the hip-hop world. Some of this went over my head (Hi, I'm caucasian) but as a casual follower of 90s R&B, I can't begin to describe how well written and intellectual this book describes that window in time. She put a microscope on black american feminist subculture during the late 90s. Like I honestly wasnt ready for some of the truth bombs. I ended up listening to Miseducation of Lauryn Hill on repeat for a few weeks - you might win some but you just lost one.

[Amina · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was such an effortless and beautiful read. I am so grateful for Joan Morgan and for books like these - books that honor, respect, and give voice to black girls/women. This is not a autobiographical book detailing the specifics of her life, but a book that try’s to give us a new perspective of Ms. Hill - her music and legacy, in a complex and nuanced way. Most importantly, this book asks us to think about “who is Lauryn Hill” outside of our imagination. I definitely had to go back and listen to her music and to be more forgiving in my critics. There are so many thing that I did not piece together and think about. Thank you, Joan Morgan. Lauryn H — Ms. Hill, deserves a book like this.

[Pierce Ellinwood · Rating 4 out of 5]

Used this and Morgan’s “When Chickenheads Come Home to Roost” to write about “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill” for my thesis about using hip-hop in the secondary humanities classroom.

The book is lean and tight and offers excellent insight and analysis of Lauryn’s impact on culture in the 1990s and the legacy she begat. Morgan is so good at flipping between colloquial speech and interviews and academic breakdowns. “She Begat This” examines the album from all angles and offers a synthetic understanding of its importance musically, culturally, and academically.

[Jamal · Rating 5 out of 5]

Joan Morgan !! I love you for this .
The way she dissected & studied 1998 , The way she left me marveling over certain aspects of this album being REVOLUTIONARY 🔥🔥🔥. The timing for this was perfect. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

[Danna · Rating 5 out of 5]

“And when it comes to best emcee barometers, that holy trinity of lyrics, delivery, and flow—L-Boogie circa 1996–2002 was one of the best emcees of all time. Pause and note: I did not say one of the best female emcees. And I did not stutter. One of the best to ever do it and during the era routinely referred to as hip-hop’s golden age. The bar was set mad high. To put her arrival in context, when The Score, the Fugees’ critically acclaimed sophomore album, dropped in 1996, it joined a cohort of bangers that included Jay-Z’s Reasonable Doubt, OutKast’s ATLiens, Nas’s It Was Written, Lil’ Kim’s Hard Core and Foxy Brown’s Ill Na Na, which were all released in that same year. Punctuate that with the hand claps it deserves.”

“In the current era of feminist critique where women—in both scholarship and shit-talking—recast Lil’ Kim as the transgressive architect of a new liberated sexuality in hip hop, Free’s point is worth underscoring. That Kim could spit was never in question, but Free is not the only one convinced that at least some of the bars allegedly freeing the proverbial “P” were scripted by the same genius force that bought us “Dreams of Fucking an R-n-B Bitch.” A fact worth putting in your feminist theory and fucking with. Along with the fact that Hill wrote her own rhymes and she wrote for and with her crew in an egalitarian, mixed-gendered, collaborative approach that was rare for hip hop at the time. By the time she dropped the “Ready or Not” verse that infamously invokes Elliot Ness, sess, witches brew, voodoo, and hexes then likens herself to Nina Simone right before firing the scatological shot heard around the world, it was Wu-Tang clear: Lauryn Hill was nothing to fuck with.”

“In the current era of feminist critique where women—in both scholarship and shit-talking—recast Lil’ Kim as the transgressive architect of a new liberated sexuality in hip hop, Free’s point is worth underscoring. That Kim could spit was never in question, but Free is not the only one convinced that at least some of the bars allegedly freeing the proverbial “P” were scripted by the same genius force that bought us “Dreams of Fucking an R-n-B Bitch.” A fact worth putting in your feminist theory and fucking with. Along with the fact that Hill wrote her own rhymes and she wrote for and with her crew in an egalitarian, mixed-gendered, collaborative approach that was rare for hip hop at the time. By the time she dropped the “Ready or Not” verse that infamously invokes Elliot Ness, sess, witches brew, voodoo, and hexes then likens herself to Nina Simone right before firing the scatological shot heard around the world, it was Wu-Tang clear: Lauryn Hill was nothing to fuck with.”

“We have Lauryn Hill and to some extent, India.Arie, to thank for that. She took our black aesthetic and made it beautiful and fashionable and sexy, and that? That helped us with the process of undoing a mind-set that taught us to hate ourselves.”

“Representation matters because it allows you to grant yourself permission to become the thing you know in your heart you are but may have never seen... People say representation only matters so much, but hear me when I say that you have to see yourself reflected in a particular way to actually believe that the potential exists for you to be beautiful. Otherwise, people are gonna tell you that you’re beautiful and you’re not gonna believe them because you yourself don’t even have a model for it.”

“Movement writers Sonia Sanchez and Alice Walker both dealt with unsolicited speculations about their ability to be mothers and successfully continue doing “the work.” It was presumed “the work” would stop, Lynnée Denise explains. “Evidently they were surrounded by folks who equated motherhood with a kind of sloth.” And when they didn’t stop working, “they were demonized for not being maternal enough.”

“For present-day evidence look no further than the last presidential election, when 52 percent of white women voted for Trump and black women voted overwhelmingly for Hillary Clinton. Despite the fact that many of us were conflicted about her political centrism and corporate cronyism, we still showed up and did it like Yoncé, #InFormation. Why? Because black feminism has not only created and gotten intersectionality, we’ve done the work to make sure that black folks understand that every political possibility has to be measured by the variables of gender, race, and class to ensure an outcome that doesn’t further endanger the lives of the marginalized.”

“Maybe there was a time when she did have moments on stage that weren’t so stellar. So, she’s been late. She’s not the only artist that’s been late. Artists are always late. There’s this anti-Lauryn energy in the world that I don’t understand, but what I really don’t understand is when we as black people participate in it—especially black women. We have to hold our sister tight, hug her, and elevate her. We can’t be the ones on social media dissing her. People do less criticism of R. Kelly than they do of Lauryn Hill. Sometimes I feel like there’s an attack on Lauryn that’s basically because her truth—her power to the people and to blackness—is so deep.”

[Jen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this one. It was a recommendation from Book Riot.

[Amanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating deep-dive into Lauryn Hill’s seminal album, hip hop culture and the way America treats celebrity but more specifically, black women.