Lauryn Hill May Have Retired After One Album, but Her Voice Still Rings Through the Halls of Rap Music
By: Harry Sutton
Lauryn Hill is one of the most highly regarded rap artists in the genre’s history. Despite only ever releasing one solo album, she is popularly credited as the godmother of melodic rap. She made her name for being someone who could match the best qualities of Nina Simone and Rakim in the same song with a perfect blend of rapping and singing. Hill brought life to powerful messages about class, race, gender, and more through punchy verses, while also displaying a vocal range that could bring peace to the world.
In the early ‘90s, Hill dropped out of Columbia following the success of her reggae-rap group, the Fugees. By 1998, she had released two projects with the group and one on her own, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, which has been regarded as a fleeting moment of musical genius for decades. At the turn of the century, Hill was starting a family with Rohan Marley (son of Bob) when she decided to retreat from the fame that her music career had built.
Two decades later, she hasn’t returned to pop culture, but her voice remains ever-present in the rap world. In 2003, one of Kanye West’s breakout hits, “All Falls Down,” sampled her song, “Mystery of Iniquity.” On the track, Ye told Hill that the kids were going to listen to him instead of her. Ye was right that he would go on to reach groundbreaking success, but that didn’t mean that Hill faded away.
“All Falls Down” set a trend of sampling Lauryn that still has stayed alive through generations of rap. From Mos Def to Chance the Rapper to IShowSpeed, music makers around the world have sampled Hill to show tribute to one of the greatest of all time. Every rapper grew up holding her music to the very highest esteem, and when they blow up to the point where they can afford a sample, they often seize that opportunity.
It doesn’t matter what kind of rap you listen to: if you’re a fan of Madlib, Pharrell, Lil B, Flatbush Zombies, J. Cole, PnB Rock, Lizzo, Logic, Cardi B, or just about anyone else, you will come across a Lauryn sample somewhere in their discography. Every new generation of rap revitalizes her voice because she inspires every new generation of rappers.
Some of the most popular Lauryn samples include “Believe What I Say” by Kanye West, “Nice For What” by Drake, and “Purity” by A$AP Rocky. “Believe What I Say” was a heartwarming homage to Kanye’s original sample of Lauryn back in 2003, giving fans a stream of nostalgia upon first listen. “Nice For What” became an absolute smash hit after its release in 2018, spawning a TikTok dance trend and reaching five-time platinum certification. “Purity” by Rocky and Frank Ocean is hailed as one of Rocky’s most intimate releases and one of the best cuts from his third studio album, Testing. Most recently, Baby Keem’s deluxe to The Melodic Blue featured a 90-second track called “highway 95,” in which he raps over a vocal loop of “Killing Me Softly.”
The rappers of yesterday, like Rapsody, Fabolous, and Method Man, sampled her. The most commercially successful rappers of all time, like Kanye, Drake, and Jay-Z, sampled her; now, the rappers of tomorrow are destined to as well.
Hill only gave us two albums with Fugees and one on her own, approximately 209 minutes of music in total, but in her brief time releasing music, she made a mark on rap that will never fade away. To understand the scope of her influence, all you need to do is listen to everybody else.
