We owe so much of our freedom, visibility and confidence to Lauryn Hill

Before Cardi B, Rihanna, Beyoncé and Solange, there was Lauryn Hill.

Lauryn Hill was political and fierce. She smashed and mourned her exes in equal measure. Source: Getty Images North America

I first saw Lauryn Hill on stage at The Metro on George St in 1996. I was about six rows from the front of the Fugees concert, but as I took my spot something felt off; it was as if the crowd had been let in early. Wyclef and Praz plugged in and tinkered about, dropping some low-fi rhymes now and again.

“Where’s Lauryn?”. My adolescent brain flicked to catastrophe. Maybe she didn’t come to Australia? Was she filming another movie? I pulsed, wide-eyed, scanning the stage, trying to feel front-man Wyclef’s flow… It felt like forever before the unmistakable sound of her alto tone filled the house.

My heart exploded as the crowd lurched forward carrying me with it -“LAURYNNNNN!!!” I screamed and burst into tears along with about 2000 Sydney fans. Her entrance was planned for maximum effect! Lauryn Hill was the main event. Two thirds of the way in she turned to the crowd and asked if there were any rappers who wanted to take the mic? Hands went up and folks made their way to the stage. In that moment a deep resolve formed in my chest: I needed to become a femcee before my 18^th birthday.

I wasn’t alone in this revelation. It seems that Nicky Minaj, Sampa The Great and a whole swag of young black women made the exact same pledge.

Lauryn Hill was everything: lyricist, singer, poet, philosopher, battler rapper, actor and fashion icon. I knew what I got from her; she had the juice before Janelle Monae and Lizzo made that slang famous. She was political and fierce. She smashed and mourned her exes in equal measure, killing us softly like an ageless afro-futuristic expert assassin. The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill dropped when the rapper was just 23 years old. In 1998 this gyal smashed Carol King’s record (unmatched since 1971) with 10 Grammy nominations and five wins.

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“I philosophy

Possibly speak tongues

Beat drum, Abyssinian, street Baptist

Rap this on fine linen, from the beginning

My practice extending across the atlas

I begat this…”

Everything is Everything Lauryn Hill 1998

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Cultural critic and journalist Joan Morgan is the author of a new book SHE BEGAT THIS, 20 years of the Miseducation of Lauryn Hill . The book is a brilliant piece of commentary and hip hop herstory from the woman who coined the term hip hop feminism in her 1999 book When Chickenheads Come Home To Roost: My Life As A Hip Hop Feminist. Morgan is the embodiment of the movement and along with a swag of black and brown women who contributed, partook, edited magazines, spun records, documented and wrote about hip hop in the 90’s, she illuminates the birth of our black girl magic via one extraordinary femcee affectionately known as L-Boogie:

“Making cover-girl moves where no dreadlocked black girl had gone before—Harper’s Bazaar, Cosmopolitan. Shit. Essence—we have Lauryn Hill to thank for the present-day Gucci models who sport TWAs (teeny-tiny afros) and Saint Laurent girls showcasing blackety-black-black cornrows, the kind without extensions. In short, Lauryn was the visual precursor for #BlackGirlMagic and #BlackGirlsRock,” Morgan writes.

Morgan shows us that if it wasn’t for Lauryn Hill there would be no Cardi B; Rihanna couldn’t have brought her Island styles to pop music, the Knowles sisters wouldn’t be holding down that conscious queendom we love so much and dark-skinned black girls definitely would not be sporting TWA’s in Gucci shoots. We owe so much of our freedom, visibility and confidence to this Jersey rapper/actress who stood in her Afro-diasporic centre and demanded the world’s attention.

Author Joan Morgan is the authority on hip hop feminism. Source: Supplied

Morgan’s book threads the narrative of L-Boogie to Ms Hill together in a way that every die-hard Lauryn Hill fan needs like oxygen. The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill--prophetic and tragic, beautiful and uncontested--is required on high rotation as you shred through the pages of Morgan’s epic milestone work. You will weep and be struck with the power of Hill’s legacy. You will be reminded of Zion and hear of its seminal standing as a soundtrack for a generation of women having babies in impossible circumstances.

You will have to play that D’angelo duet over and over and contemplate why the 90’s Marvin Gaye and Nina Simone did not make award-winning second albums. This book will shake you and fill you with joy, but most of all it will remind you to remember and pass that remembering on to the next generation of queens… Cardi B might be schmillionare, seizing the 2019 Best Rap Album Grammy and featuring in the top five of most 16-year-old girls Apple music accounts, but 20 years ago… Lauryn Hill begat this, and that must never be forgotten.

Candy Bowers spoke with Joan Morgan ahead of her appearance at All About Women at Sydney Opera House on Sunday March 10.

 SHE BEGAT THIS: 20 Years of the Miseducation of Lauryn Hill is published by Simon and Schuster.

Candy is a comic, playwright, lyricist and actor, follow her on Twitter at @TheCandyBowers.