Username: Ghost-Quartet

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Album: The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill: Now, as a theatre boy I grew up very ignorant of the world of music but when I first started getting into pop I had the good sense to put this album on my “to-listen” list so I was familiar with this project going into the rate, but revisiting it has given me a new appreciation for it. It’s no wonder this album became legendary, I think even people who have listened to this album every day since it came out are still finding new things to appreciate about it. Lauryn Hill’s career is one of the biggest “what-ifs” in the music industry, I want to live in the world where she got her life together and continued releasing music after this album because I’m sure that’s a great place. [Also for those interested, check out this article that Rolling Stone did that’s an oral history of the album](https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/inside-the-miseducation-of-lauryn-hill-252219/) because there’s a lot of fun tidbits in there.

Lost Ones: 9.5 Lauryn kicks the album off with a bang, right off the bat she hits you with her ability to create songs that convey a message while still being total bangers: “Lost Ones” has straight up one of the best beats I’ve ever heard in a song and Lauryn spits straight fire from beginning to end while showcasing her vocals as well. This song is a not-so-subtle dig at her ex Wyclef Jean, coincidentally a member of her ex-group The Fugees… it’s a whole mess, look it up, but the song is great!

Ex-Factor: 10 Oh boy. Throughout the scoring process there were a few songs that occupied the top spot at various points, but once we got more than a handful of ballots in it became clear that the rate would end in a dog fight between “Ex-Factor” and “Doo-Wop.” While no other song ever really came close to beating these two, they’re incredibly close to each other (seriously, check their averages) and the two were trading spots up until the very last scores came in. Ultimately “Ex-Factor” ended up losing by a hair, which is a shame because it was my pick to win. I’ve lived a fairly uneventful life but I’ve had the good fortune to have my heart broken, and this song just cuts right to the core of those feelings. The shamelessness of the lyrics, the yearning in Lauryn’s voice, the gorgeous (iconic) melody, this is just legendary and transcendent in ways I can’t even begin to describe.

To Zion (feat. Carlos Santana): 8 Reading the comments some of y’all left on this one actually made me a little emotional to the point where I actually went in and switched the shitpost at the last minute. This is such a beautiful, powerful song! Her son’s name is actually Zion and it provides some interesting layered imagery for the lyrics as she starts to blur the line between her son Zion and the biblical Zion as if he and the holy land are one and the same, and she’s blessed to march towards them. Lauryn has been embroiled in some… controversy surrounding her relationship with her children but it’s not my place to stick my nose into other people’s family affairs, and the song stands on its own as a touching tribute to maternal love.

Doo Wop (That Thing): 8.5 “Doo Wop (That Thing)” was basically called as the winner from the moment this rate was announced, and it manages to fulfill the prophecy by an incredibly narrow ***0.3 points.*** Sometimes the obvious choice is the correct one though, I don’t need to explain why this is good. The lyrics might have aged a bit (which is why I bumped the score down a bit and apparently some of y’all agreed) but no one can deny that this song broke barriers musically and in the industry, and it’s a worthy entry to the pantheon of rate winners.

Superstar: 7.5 Lauryn takes shots at the industry with this one! There are a lot of pretty sounds and clever lines on this track but unfortunately it doesn’t quite do enough to distinguish itself against such stiff competition. It did make it a lot further than I thought it would though.

Final Hour: 6 For a while there it was looking like this was going to be Lauryn’s first song eliminated and tbh I kinda still wish that it was because it’s definitely my least favorite track on the album. Probably because it’s the most straightforward “rap” song in the rate but also because I just find it a bit less focused musically than the rest of *Miseducation*, it just doesn’t quite have the same killer hooks or memorable lines.

When It Hurts so Bad: 7.5 The lyrics of this one… oof. I like this song but it’s another one of those tracks that just kinda falls in the middle of an album full of classics, which is more or less what happened to it in the rate as well. Still, you know an album is good when *this* is what the filler sounds like.

I Used To Love Him (feat. Mary J. Blige): 7.5 So I’m fairly certain that this is our first time rating a Mary J Blige song, which is a little bit of an oversight considering she’s one of the queens of r&b, but fortunately her first outing ends well for her! I was a bit surprised that this one made it this high since it’s a fairly straightforward r&b song compared to the rest of the rate but I can’t deny that the two have fantastic chemistry and the melodies here are great.

Forgive Them Father: 7.8 So Lauryn Hill has a lot of ties to the Marley family throughout her life and this song is one of them: It incorporates [“Concrete Jungle” by Bob Marley](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y07vgARrOUE) and his son, Julian Marley, plays guitar here. Also Spotify doesn’t seem to mention this but the song features a Jamaican dancehall/rap artist named [Shelly Thunder](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pT5zNhBKOM), I looked into her a bit and apparently she had some mild success in the ‘80s in the New York scene and now sings gospel! So this is definitely a track with an interesting pedigree lol

Every Ghetto, Every City: 8 Part of Lauryn’s appeal in her heyday was how she elevated the “urban” aesthetic; she felt like the girl from down the block but she turned that into poetry, and it really allowed her to speak to that demographic. You can really see that on this track, which is an ode to her upbringing in the city and to people growing up like that all around the world. I think that’s a really important thing that music can do, illuminate the beauty in places that society doesn’t usually recognize it.

Nothing Even Matters (feat. D’Angelo): 9 I think it’s hilarious that Lauryn Hill, a woman infamous for showing up to events late, is our last song eliminated Day 1. As hilarious as that is I’m actually a little bit shocked that this one is leaving us now! It was sitting pretty in Day 2 for a while until the late rush of ballots shoved it down, with a general consensus from the negative comments being that it’s just kinda slow and uninteresting compared to the rest of the album. I disagree, both Lauryn and D’Angelo sound beautiful here and the vibes here are sooo good, but the people have spoken!

Everything Is Everything: 9 The first of Lauryn’s iconic singles leaves us and this is probably a worthy placement for it because while I like this song, things turn into a bloodbath from here on upwards. “Everything is everything” is one of those lyrics that’s so simple it’s almost stupid but instead of meaning nothing it somehow means, well… everything! Lauryn was an icon to a generation of inner city communities and her message of perseverance and living to fight for a better tomorrow is still pretty resonant to this day. Also this is probably very easy to understand but I’ll mention how much I love the usage of circular imagery in the music video. Interestingly we have something of a hidden cameo on this song as well: a young John Legend is playing piano!

The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill: 9.5 The closer of the standard edition of the album, this gorgeous ballad is one of my favorite songs in the rate. Though the title is never actually referenced in the lyrics [Lauryn herself has explained why she chose to use it:](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVTIbgHaWjs) “miseducation” isn’t being used in a negative sense here, but rather to refer to a different kind of education formed through life experiences rather than in schools. This is interesting to think about in the context of all the “classroom” interludes peppered throughout the album as none of these scenes discuss the type of things traditionally discussed in school, but they’re illuminating nonetheless. And the fact that Lauryn herself is marked conspicuously absent from these discussions in the intro just brings everything full circle because she’s describing the things she leaned when she wasn’t in school here. I think that the record scratches playing over the track are appropriate in this sense because they represent Lauryn forging her own path, continuing to sing even after the record has run out of songs.

Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You - (I Love You Baby): 8.5 So somewhat surprisingly this was actually in first place for a bit! It was displaced fairly quickly but held on to a Top 10 spot for a while until the late rush of ballots shoved it out, but it still ends up with a very respectable placement. Interesting history for this song: it was recorded for the movie [*Conspiracy Theory*](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adYGUai7PNc) while Lauryn was eight months pregnant and it became a radio hit so they tacked it on to the album. Covers are a big part of Lauryn’s career (*Sister Act 2* and her work with The Fugees were her main claims to fame before the album was out) so it feels like a natural addition though. While I like this arrangement much more than the original I do have to admit that I prefer the more disco take on the song popularized by Boys Town Gang/Gloria Gaynor.

Tell Him: 9 Back when music was on records/CDs there used to be this archaic thing called “hidden tracks,” which were bonus songs hidden behind large swatches of silence. “Tell Him” was one of those and it’s too good to be silenced, this is a beautiful song and I love the lyrics so I’m very glad that it made it this far. Balladphobia lost!

Album: Baduizm: I’m fairly certain that the reason I was asked to co-host this particular rate is because shortly before the rate cycle was decided I talked about listening to *Baduizm* during one of my weekly 5x5s writeups in the Daily Discussion threads, which meant I was one of the few people on the sub who was publicly expressing opinions on Erykah Badu. I won’t lie and say that I’m a huge fan or anything like that but I’m glad that I got the opportunity to cohost this rate because the more I listen to Erykah the more I like her, she just seems like a fascinating person and artist and I know I’m going to be listening to more of her music after this.

Rim Shot - Intro: 9 *And* the other “Rim Shot” goes out, only 0.27 points above its companion. This is an incredible opening track, when I first listened to *Baduizm* this grabbed me right away with its effortless vibes and Erykah’s lovely voice and it’s still one of my favorite tracks on the album. There are perhaps some sexual undertones to this song but shhhh~

On & On: 9 “On & On” is a Grammy winning song and one of Erykah’s biggest/most recognizable hits, so it seems natural that it would be one of her highest placing songs in the rate. A pensive track which sees Erykah espousing her personal views on life, it’s the perfect encapsulation of Erykah’s earthy-yet-ethereal brand. The lyrics are peppered with references to philosophy, religion, astrology, and [“the teachings of the Nation of Gods and Earths”](https://genius.com/Nation-of-gods-and-earths-supreme-mathematics-annotated) and while many of the specific cultural references in the song are esoteric now, her gift for lyrical poetry has ensured that the song itself reminded relevant.

Appletree: 10 While I gave this song a ten, I’m genuinely shocked that it made it this far because I didn’t realize it was such a fan favorite? I assumed that “On & On” would be Erykah’s highest ranking song and for a while there it was, but in the final day of receiving ballots this jumped ahead of it (and Jill as well). The flow and melody of this song are so pleasant and memorable and I think it’s a perfect encapsulation of Erykah as an artist in a different way than “On & On” is: Erykah is a wild child with a lot of strange ideas and like the song says, you can either take her or leave her. I know I’ll definitely be checking out more of her music after this rate though!

Other Side Of The Game: 9 This song is a bit long but I think it absolutely justifies its run time, it’s a slow burn of energy that just swells up under your feet. I don’t have a ton to say about it but I’m very glad that it wasn’t horribly robbed!

Sometimes - Mix #9: 6 Erykah does some freestyle bars over the instrumental for her song “Sometimes,” I’m not even sure why this is on the album but it’s short enough that it isn’t distracting. We could probably have cut this tbh

Next Lifetime: 9 Erykah just has such a funky fun fresh perspective, there’s so many different layers to this song: It’s romantic, stealthily melancholy, even vaguely humorous. Also the hook of this song is, in my opinion, one of the catchiest things on *Baduizm*. I would maybe have bumped this song even higher but this is a great place for it to finish so I’m not mad about it.

Afro - Freestyle Skit: 6.5 Another track that was maybe somewhat robbed due to it being not really a song? A funny little skit that Erykah improvised in the studio, weirdly enough this track is featured at the start of the music video for “On & On” but it’s nowhere near that song on the tracklist so…? According to Genius this track is an affectionate tribute to the drummer of The Roots (oh hey those guys again) Questlove, who does in fact have a have an afro. Idk how I were him and someone dedicated a song about a deadbeat guy to me but hey, I’m not gonna argue with Erykah Badu.

Certainly: 8 The original version of “Certainly” is the higher placing one, which is kinda neat because it’s also objectively the less pop-friendly version. They feature the same somewhat ambiguous lyrics though: Erykah herself has said this song is an allegory for black Americans being kidnapped from Africa and forced to change their culture, but the lyrics can also be interpreted as being about a woman who decides she doesn’t need men, or just a straightforward story of a date gone wrong. It’s so layered we have to hear it twice to understand it I guess.

4 Leaf Clover: 7.5

No Love: 8 This is a pretty song but I kinda forget about it most of the time and don’t have much to say about it. Fun fact though: This is another Erykah song that samples Stevie Wonder, in this case [“I Love You Too Much”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84s_rq-6K2k) during the bridge.

Drama: 7.5 This is the first real song to be eliminated (I consider “Honey Molasses” an interlude since it’s mostly poetry) and I can’t say I’m surprised since it’s six minutes of Erykah opining on the state of the world, personally I think it’s pretty but it is a very tough sell. Fun fact: this song samples [“Pastime Paradise” by Stevie Wonder](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0S4SiLxt1s) and references some of the lyrics.

Sometimes: 8.5 We heard a snippet of this earlier with Mix #9 and the final version doesn’t disappoint… or does I guess since y’all voted it out in the bottom ten. A beautiful song that’s perhaps a bit too long, like a lot of songs from this point upwards there was nothing really wrong with the track it was just outcompeted by stronger ones. Also another connection to The Roots: this track was originally supposed to feature Black Thought (who’s the voice heard on “The Roots (Interlude)”) but he isn’t on the final version for some reason.

Certainly - Flipped It: 8.1 SURPRISE! Erykah Badu put two different versions of this song on her album and I think a lot of people assumed that the flipped version (which has more pop-friendly production) would be the higher ranking of the two but NOPE! The original jazzy version is ranking higher (though we won’t spoil how much higher just yet), and I’ll talk more about the song then.

Rim Shot - Outro: 7 One of the things I was most excited to see in this rate is which version of “Rim Shot” would rank higher, and the answer didn’t surprise me. I don’t like how this abruptly cuts in and while it’s cute that the album begins/ends the same way, hearing the same song twice doesn’t exactly make it more endearing.

A Child With the Blues: 7 *Baduizm* is technically the shortest album in the rate in terms of both length and the number of tracks (several of which are interludes or repeats) so my co-host and I agreed to include this so that Erykah could bulk up her numbers a bit, plus it technically is included on the special edition of the album so it counts. It didn’t exactly dominate the rate or anything but it’s a nice song and I’m glad we threw it in there. Check out *Eve’s Bayou* by the way, it’s an amazingly atmospheric horror/drama that’s worth watching.

Tyrone - Live: 8.5 Now this may be hard to believe but Erykah claims that [this entire song is actually a *freestyle*!](https://www.okayplayer.com/music/erykah-badu-tyrone-20th-anniversary-new-music.html) In a way that actually kinda makes sense because I don’t know how she could have recaptured this kind of raw energy in the studio, she is letting this guy *have it!* Despite this (somehow?) never charting anywhere on any of the Billboard charts it’s become one of her most recognizable hits, and earned itself a pretty good placement in the rate. On a more personal note, while I didn’t grow up with this music like many people did I actually have a special connection to this song because my name is “Tai” and all throughout my life my father would periodically randomly say “you better CAAAALLLL Tyrone” to me and I had absolutely no context for it until I listened to this song for this very rate. So… yeah!

Album: Who Is Jill Scott? Words and Sounds Vol. 1: A major goal with this rate in particular was to expose people to new music and broaden the horizons of the participants and we got a lot of comments from people saying how much they enjoyed this project, which makes me very happy. Jill Scott is an artist I was completely unfamiliar with prior to this rate and I just assumed that she was gonna get slaughtered but after the first listen of her album she actually became my favorite! I love her sound and her energy, it feels like her music is something I’ve been dancing around my whole life and I’m glad I finally found her.

Jilltro: 5.5 Jilltro is, naturally, a pun on Jill’s name and the word “cilantro,” and the song is a tender ode to her love of the leafy herb. I assumed because this song was front and center on Jill’s album that it would bear the brunt of the interludephobia and be the first song eliminated, but pleasantly this wasn’t the case! It still bites it pretty early though.

Do You Remember: 11 When I agreed to cohost this rate I had never heard this album before but from the second I heard this song I was hooked. This track underscores a lot of what I’ve been talking about with the idea of neo-soul blending the past and the future,:her childhood in the neighborhood and another lifetime in Africa are one and the same to her here. There’s a tender sensuality to the way that she just flows freely throughout time, as if she has an eternity to croon to you and she’s going to milk every second of it. Her voice is so smooth and the music is so soothing… ugh, I love it so much.

Exclusively: 9 Well this track certainly got a LOT of reactions! I don’t know whether to consider this song an interlude or just a track that happens to be solely poetry, but like all of the other shorter tracks in the rate it’s unfortunately fallen lower in the rankings. I have a soft spot for this one, Jill’s spoken word talents shine here and no matter how many times I listen I’m always a little bit gagged when this checkout girl literally sniffs out her man! A perfectly respectable placement for a track of this kind.

Gettin’ In The Way: 7 A song about Jill threatening to throw hands with her man’s ex, the structure of this song is actually kind of interesting: it goes “Chorus -> Verse -> Chorus -> Verse -> Bridge -> Chorus -> Verse -> Outro,” a neat little quirk. I personally am not a huge fan of this one, while the song is pretty it’s just kind of “there” compared to another songs in the rate and I didn’t even know it was a single until I was putting together the playlist for the rate (oops). Also it could just be me though but the placement of this song after “Exclusively,” which sees Jill discovering her man is cheating on her, paints the story of the song in a slightly different light. Doth the lady protest too much?

A Long Walk: 9 Jill was my little engine that could this rate, I wanted so badly for her to succeed and for a while there she was actually  might be exiting the rate early but up against two titans that’s nothing to be ashamed of! Her highest placing song is, fittingly enough, one of her most popular, and one that seems to call up some memories for some people! Jill just sounds like the coolest girl on the block on this one, she spits the lyrics almost as if she’s thinking them up as she says them. It’s a real riptide of a song, you don’t realize it’s swept you up until you’re already drifting away in the ocean of Jill’s soul… now if she could explain why she made the music video private right before the reveal that would be great.

I Think It’s Better: 6 Unsurprisingly another interlude, but I’m kinda surprised this one didn’t do better because it’s very pretty. Maybe the length worked against it?

He Loves Me (Lyzel in E Flat): 9 When listing off the influences for the sound of this album Jill will often mention “opera,” and I think the influence is clearest here. While a lot of this album leans more onto her skills as a poet, she flexes her abilities as a crooner here; there’s definitely a gentleness to this track, try singing along with it and you’ll realize just how tricky what she’s doing with her voice here is! She lists off the ways that her husband loves her with incredible reverence, and while the marriage that inspired the track has faded away this marvelous tune lives on.

It’s Love: 9 Jill goes for a more club friendly sound with this one with the go-go influences, and the result is one of the more “boppy” tracks on the album. This one cracked the Top 10 at the last second and I’m glad it did, more than any of the songs in this rate I think that this is the one that makes me want to get up and shake my body around!

The Way: 8.5 A fun fact is that this was technically the very first song to win the rate, back when there was only one ballot in this held the top spot! Unfortunately every subsequent ballot knocked it further from that coveted podium but it was still a fun way to kick things off, and I wouldn’t be mad if it had stayed the winner. This really clicked for me when I was watching videos to prepare the reveal I came across a video of her singing this song at the NAACP awards (if you’re watching the reveal you’ve already seen it since she sings “Do You Remember?” as well) and watching everyone in the audience sing along with her was just pure joy, and apparently a lot of you have warm fuzzies for this one as well.

Honey Molasses: 8 The first of Jill’s poetry driven tracks bites it and personally, I think y’all did this one a little dirty. The atmosphere here is gorgeous, the way the words just spill out of her really captures the feeling of what it’s like to anguish over how to communicate with someone you like and she manages to throw in a nice little curveball there at the end of the track. Also the transition from this into the next track is flawless but unfortunately we’re not rating that.

Love Rain: 8.5 Jill would like to take a moment to remind us, in case you haven’t figured it out by this point in the album, that she is thirsty. A lot of the themes of the album roll up into this one so it kinda falls into the middle for me, but it’s still a very good song and I’m a bit surprised this didn’t perform better. There’s a remix of this song featuring Mos Def that turns it into a more traditional hip-hop song and it’s pretty good but we decided not to include it because remixes don’t generally perform very well in rates and it’s not *that* different, but if you thought this song was missing something maybe check it out?

The Roots (Interlude): 6 I think we all knew an interlude was going out first and it doesn’t surprise me that it was this one since it’s really barely a song. For those looking for context, Jill Scott co-wrote and recorded vocals for a song called called “You Got Me” with legendary hip-hop group The Roots and while she was replaced by Erykah Badu because the label wanted a bigger name, she ended up accompanying The Roots on tour to perform it with them. This was when Jill was first getting started so she wasn’t very well known outside of her native Philadelphia, so they would introduce her during their shows like this. A cute little snapshot of history I suppose.

Slowly Surely: 10 One of my personal favorites from Jill’s album! It pains me that this didn’t place higher, given the strength of the top half of the rate I guess it’s understandable but y’all couldn’t have at least bumped it up to Day 2? I think the message of this song (emerging from desperation and pain) is very powerful and I’m obsessed with the way she whispers out the lyrics… it’s like you can hear her healing.

One Is The Magic #: 7.5 I did some research but I was not able to find out why Jill opens this song by speaking Spanish, but I’m assuming it’s because she decided to give this one a Spanish flair in general with the rhythms and horns. I’m not quite sure *why* but it’s an interesting change of pace from the rest of the album, but personally I think it’s a bit out of place and I’m surprised it’s ranking so high.

Watching Me: 8 Jill kinda snapped with this one, while it veers into conspiracy theory at times (is DirectTV the enemy?) but she was railing against the surveillance state twenty years ago! It’s lower in the rankings that I would personally place it but I totally understand why… perhaps the strange fusion of singing and spoken word was a bit too much for y’all, or perhaps it was too #woke, or maybe it was just the dripping water noises because several comments complained about that. Still, keep spreading the good word Jill.

Brotha: 6 Not my personal favorite and I’m not surprised to see it go out on day one, it’s nice but it gets repetitive after a while and it just kinda ends? The pro-“brotha” message is appreciated though, something tells me there were a lot of dudes out there back in the day who had this one on repeat!

Show Me: 8 This is the last track of the standard edition of *Who Is Jill Scott?* (though there are bonus tracks) and I like to think of it as “No Scrubs” for the mature lady. Despite the somewhat aggressive tone of the lyrics it’s actually a kinda sweet song because she’s giving this guy the benefit of the doubt, she really *wants* him to love her and she thinks that he can… she’s just gotta be sure.

Try: 7.5 Did you know that Jill was studying to be a teacher before dropping out to pursue poetry, and eventually music? A bonus track of *Who Is Jill Scott?* (other than the “Love Rain” remix we elected to not include) is an r&b cut that pays tribute to this story, a classic “I made it” song. It’s always empowering to hear a song about someone (especially a black woman) rising from the bottom to the top (or in this case the very start of Day 2).

END