As a 10-year-old living in suburban New Jersey when The Miesducation of Lauryn HIll dropped in August of 1998, I can comfortably assume a role of an expert on the subject. 

The album is probably the only physical CD left out of my adolescent collection of various Now That’s What I Call Musics.

Lauryn’s influence on billboard charts has faded, yes, but the impact she has had on hip hop, and more importantly women in hip hop, I will argue, has had long-lasting effects on the culture of music as a whole. 

I often wonder why people have stopped talking about her. I’ll sometimes tune into Hot97 expecting Angie Martinez to drop DooWop, always disappointed that the discussion on real women in hip hop has dwindled. Now, no offense to Angie (you my girl), but as many have said before me and as many will continue to say after me, mainstream hip hop has lost it’s soul. 

The Thong Song changed the game. Hip hop was no longer about social, cultural, and political commentary, but instead-in order to make “chart topping hits”- its gotta be all about ass, titties, and cash. Even mainstream women in the game (ahem, Nicki Minaj) continue to create songs centered on these three pilars of moral ambiguity. Why can’t we create music that speaks to 10 year girls old growing up in the suburbs of New Jersey? of Atlanta? of Chicago? of the world?

That, my friends, is what Lauryn Hill successfully did in the late summer of 1998. The fact that The Miseducation was her first, and contentiously her last, album makes it’s influence even more significant.