Lauryn Hill and Her Magic: A Book Review of She Begat This by Joan Morgan

In between the controversies and memorable moments that the year 1998 brought, something beautiful happened.  In the sticky, New York City heat that the month of August tends to bring, a storm was brewing.  The Fugees were hot in the 90s but Lauryn Hill, also known as L-Boogie (or, the best Fugee emcee)- was hotter.  The summer of ‘98 marked the release of The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, L-Boogie's much anticipated solo album.  

Famed hip-hop journalist Joan Morgan’s, She Begat This, is a journey into the history of Lauryn Hill and the road she paved for black women in the 90s and beyond.  Morgan does not hesitate to write from the point of view of a fan.  However, she makes it clear that just because she’s a fan of Ms. Hill does not mean that the history of the album will be sugar coated.  The tax evasions and lawsuits are all mentioned in their not-so-glory.  Morgan carefully intertwines Lauryn Hill’s style, the politics of the era, and the modern experience of black women in one swift read.  

She Begat This gathers together deejays, writers, and experts who all have been touched by Lauryn Hill in some way.  It’s a multitude of black women coming together to comment and love on what Lauryn did throughout her career. In true journalistic nature, Morgan includes a collection of interviews conducted between her and these women, which make for incredible dialogue.  She writes as if she’s talking directly to you, and I thoroughly enjoyed the conversation.  There’s a lot to be said about Ms. Hill.  Let’s start with the album in question.   

Miseducation encompasses a whole variety of themes, all wrapped together in the talents of Lauryn: songstress and emcee.  It was soul, hip hop and reggae all in one.  Morgan writes that the album has been, “routinely lauded for its themes of self-love, empowerment, and broken-heart-bounce backs,” and has worked its way up the ranks in American Pop culture.    

The thing about Lauryn Hill, as put by Morgan, was that she represented #blackgirlmagic before the hashtag was even invented.  Morgan writes, “we turned to her for soul affirmation that we were more than enough before the digital revolution,” that revolution including the invention of hashtags in social media sites like Instagram and Tumblr, where more #blackgirlmagic can be found with a simple search.  Lauryn was that hashtag for women of the 90s with her natural hair and makeup.  Her magic could be found on the covers of countless magazines, but especially on the cover of Honey, which Morgan remembers fondly.  Seeing Hill on the cover of magazines was especially important not only for the representation of black women, but also because she was taken as a force to be reckoned with by the misogynist music world.  

What made Lauryn Hill special, along with her immense talent, was her intersectionality.  She was an ivy league educated woman with a degree in English, who came from a middle class home neatly placed in a New Jersey suburb.  She certainly was no Lil Kim or Foxy Brown, two influential women in hip hop at the time, in terms of “hyper-sexuality.”  She was like these women in the sense that she was untouchable.  She was honest about where she grew up, and she was able to rhyme, as well as hit a high note.  No one could mess with Lauryn Hill, and that was a fact.   

The dust that Lauryn Hill kicked up went away almost as soon as it started.  She dropped an amazing album loved by millions, won a few Grammys, and then disappeared.  Lauryn Hill fell victim to being labeled a legend far too soon.  She was a twenty something with one album out and being compared to Nina Simone that same year.  It was, as some believe, an unwarranted comparison, but for others, it was simply too much too soon.  She wasn’t exactly pulling a Sade, who fled the scene as well, but not before she released four consecutive albums.  Hill left after one piece of work that inspired a cultural reset.  She left with the entire weight of the world on her shoulders. 

For many, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill sparks memories of being in your twenties, if you’ve begun that part of your life yet. For me, who’s only just entered my twenties, that feels about right. It’s smart and catchy, but most importantly, it knows that it’s right. The album, much like your twenties, is about standing up for what you believe in and preaching your wisdom as if it’s the gospel, because you know that it is. Joan Morgan’s book isn’t a biography but a beautiful retelling of history, proving that Lauryn Hill was right to preach her youthful wisdom with the world.