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Pop Rock Nation

Tag: Lauryn Hill

  • They Put Me In The Mix – JS5 (JSlow 5)

    When I starting creating these slow jam tapes, really, they were to be about slow and inspiring music about love and relationships. I think I made a wrong turn at Albuquerque. This is the wackiest JSlow I’d ever done and probably will ever do. There are many songs that don’t make sense at all as to why they are on here. But away we go.

    JS5 (circa 1999)

    1. Could – Brian McKnight
    2. Say It – Voices Of Theory
    3. It Seems Like You’re Ready – R. Kelly
    4. They Don’t Know – Jon B.
    5. Do Your Thing – 7 Mile
    6. Your Body’s Callin’ – R. Kelly
    7. Brick – Ben Folds Five
    8. Gone Till November – Wyclef Jean
    9. All In Love Is Fair – Stevie Wonder
    10. And Our Feelings – Babyface
    11. I Don’t Want To Ever See You Again – Uncle Sam
    12. Never Is A Promise – Fiona Apple
    13. When Can I See You – Babyface
    14. I Don’t Wanna Go On – Innerlude
    15. The Only One For Me – Brian McKnight
    16. Sweet Thing – Mary J. Blige
    17. The Sweetest Thing – Lauryn Hill
    18. Baby You Are – Uncle Sam

    Why were there two R. Kelly songs on there were like 4 years old? No clue. Looking back, I think I just wanted to put another tape together and just found any slow song that I hadn’t already used, even those that weren’t about love or heartbreak. And this was before my ban on R. Kelly music.

    • I was definitely in Brian McKnight fan mode at this point and The Only One For Me still does it for me.
    • Whatever happened to Voices Of Theory?
    • Whatever happened to 7 Mile (one of Mariah Carey’s first and only signings on her now defunct label)?
    • I loved Brick and while it’s not the typical love song, I still enjoy it.
    • The shades and shadows undulate in my perception – enough said Fiona, enough said.
    • Even though All In Love Is Fair is the most depressing Stevie Wonder song ever, I still had to add it
    • I was buying everything during this time, even Uncle Sam, who was a once protege of Boyz II Men
    • Innerlude? Don’t ask.
    • Remember when Lauryn Hill used to be The Sweetest Thing?

    JSlow 6 would be my first since my oldest son was born, so you can imagine what’s on that one.

    Previous JSlows
    Jam Slow
    JSlo 3
    JSlow 4

  • “Lost One” Lauryn Hill: 10 Years Since “Miseducation”…Where’s The Follow-Up?

    A decade ago (has it really been that long?), Lauryn Hill was on top of the world. Blessed with the rare double talent of being able to sing beautifully and rap skillfully-I dare you to name a better female MC EVER-she had superstar juice all over her. After initially gaining notoriety as an actress (“Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit” and “As the World Turns”), Lauryn broke through for real as the most talented third of the Fugees, a group that smashed together hip-hop, R&B and Caribbean flavors and scored the most left-field hit of 1996 with “The Score”. This album turned out to be the biggest hip-hop seller of the year, not a small feat during the year in which we lost Tupac.

    Lauryn Hill performing live. Photo by Lisa Liang.
    Lauryn Hill performing live. Photo by Lisa Liang.

    There had been some internal drama within the group for some time. The rumor mill had Lauryn and bandmate Wyclef Jean dating (something that’s been confirmed by Wyclef’s wife, although both Wyclef himself and Lauryn have more or less stayed mum on the topic), while Lauryn was immediately singled out for her beauty and talent, which led to some discontent on the behalf of Wyclef and third member Pras, the Andrew Ridgeley of the group. ‘Clef struck first, reaching Platinum status with his album “The Carnival”, but Lauryn struck best, releasing her stunning record “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill” on 8/25/98. Despite A-list support from the likes of D’Angelo and Mary J. Blige, “Miseducation” was all about Lauryn. The album sold 7 million copies, registered the highest first week totals for a female artist at the time, became the first hip-hop record to win the Grammy for Album of the Year, and was arguably the best R&B record of the entire decade. Lauryn was the entire music world’s “it” girl. Gorgeous, brainy, talented, and seemingly grounded. (more…)

  • Is Entertainment Weekly’s List of the 100 Greatest Albums of the Past 25 Years a Purple Mess?

    I actually meant to discuss this a couple weeks ago when it was actually current news, but hey, better late than never.

    I’m a list guy. I can spend hours, days on end attempting to make sense of lists of the best sitcoms of all time, or whether “Off the Wall” or “Thriller” is the Purple Rain Cover better Michael Jackson album (“Off the Wall” is), or…well, you get the picture. Anyway, the folks at “Entertainment Weekly” published their 1,000th issue a couple weeks ago (congratulations to them), and they posted lists of the 100 greatest TV shows, movies, books and records of the past 25 years. While the TV and movie lists were interesting (book lists don’t move me), I was most intrigued by their list of the Top 100 albums. Sitting pretty at the top of the list was…”To the Extreme” by Vanilla Ice.

    Obviously, I’m kidding. The album they picked for the #1 spot was Prince’s “Purple Rain”, which struck me as sort of a strange choice. I mean, it’s logical. Hell, it’s an incredible fucking album. It’s just not a standard or expected choice. I would have expected “OK Computer” or “Nevermind” (both of which would have been as deserving…”Nevermind” didn’t even make the list), or, if the EW folks wanted to be edgy, Winehouse’s “Back To Black” or any of the three qualifying Kanye West albums. But “Purple Rain” just seems like sort of a left-field choice, or as left-field as any album as huge as “Purple Rain” was can be, considering the damn thing spent damn near six months at #1 on the charts.

    (more…)