Lauryn Hill Gives Rare Interview for Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Albums Podcast on Amazon Music

Yesterday, Rolling Stone revealed the latest episode of Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Albums podcast, exclusively available on Amazon Music, exploring Lauryn Hill’s classic 1998 album, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill. While Hill rarely grants interviews, she provided a new, exclusive e-mail interview for the episode, in which Hill provides detailed new insights on the album. Excerpts from Lauryn Hill’s interview can be found below.

Elsewhere in the episode, host Brittany Spanos speaks with others involved in the creation of Miseducation, including producers Gordon Williams and Vada Nobels; backup singer Candice Anderson, Ruffhouse Records Founder Chris Schwartz, and more. R&B star H.E.R. also discusses the continuing influence of the album on musicians like herself. Later in the episode, Rolling Stone Senior Writer Jamil Smith; musician and poet Jamila Woods; and Dr. Joan Morgan, author of She Begat This: 20 Years of The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill join Spanos to discuss the legacy and impact of Hill’s music, her relationship with celebrity, and her subsequent near-complete abandonment of both during a roundtable discussion.

Available exclusively on Amazon Music, Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Albums podcast goes inside the making and the meaning of 10 albums from the list, featuring fresh stories from the artists who recorded them and insights from the Rolling Stone staff. Listen here.

Lauryn Hill on how the album addresses systemic racism:

All of my albums have probably addressed systemic racism to some degree, before this was something this generation openly talked about. I was called crazy. Now…over a decade later, we hear this as part of the mainstream chorus. Ok, so chalk some of it up to leadership and how that works—I was clearly ahead, but you also have to acknowledge the blatant denial that went down with that. The public abuse and ostracizing while suppressing and copying what I had done, (I protested) with still no real acknowledgement that all of that even happened, is a lot.”

Lauryn Hill on Miseducation’s legacy:

“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. 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.

Lauryn Hill on why she never recorded another studio album:

“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.”

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Dr. Jerry Doby Editor-in-Chief of The Hype Magazine, Media and SEO Consultant, Journalist, Ph.D. and retired combat vet. 2023 recipient of The President's Lifetime Achievement Award. Partner at THM Media Group. Member of the U.S. Department of Arts and Culture, the United States Press Agency and ForbesBLK.