How Lauryn Hill Redefined The Way We Look At Black Motherhood
Among the most critically acclaimed women in Hip Hop is the impeccable Lauryn Hill — whose only album, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill remains a pop culture and scholarly masterpiece even 20 years after it’s release in 1998. However, choosing motherhood over continuing to release albums and stay on the path to fame is something Black women applaud her for as both a woman, but more particularly a Black mother in Hollywood.
The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill featured numerous themes such as motherhood, religion, exploitation of women and most importantly, love. Love. How it is and what we think it should be in a time where women are highly sexualized and ‘the exposure of the Black female body was the standard, SOMEONE stood up and represented a different image entirely, giving a generation of young women options and alternatives of self-representation.”
There’s no denying the fact that this album came at a time when Black women, in particular, needed it the most and she definitely delivered mental therapy and soul loving lyrics to us. This album quickly became a success and resulted in Hill winning 5 awards including Album of the Year and Best New Artist at the 41st Annual Grammy Awards in 1999 — making her the first woman to ever win that many awards in a single night.
Lauryn Hill photographed at the 1999 Grammy Awards.
In a 1997 interview, 21-year-old Lauryn Hill confirmed her pregnancy after speculations began to arise in the media concerning whether or not she was actually with child. Critics were quick to shame her underneath the impression that she had ruined her career and her reputation as the new ‘Queen of Hip Hop’. Even some of the people on her management team had suggested that she terminate the pregnancy to save her career and to not disappoint her fans. Despite all of this though, Lauryn still decided to continue with her pregnancy on her agency.
Hill expressed her intimate feelings about her pregnancy and the judgment that she faced in track 4 of The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill titled ‘To Zion’ — where she expressed her worries about motherhood and the ridicule she faced from others on her decision to keep her child.
“Unsure of what the balance held/ I touched my belly overwhelmed/ By what I had been chosen to perform/ But then an angel came one day/ Told me to kneel and pray/ For unto me a man child would be born/ Woe this crazy circumstance/ I knew his life deserved a chance/ But everybody told me to be smart/ Look at your career they said/ Lauryn, baby use your head/ But instead I chose to use my heart”
Lauryn took a stance against critics through ‘To Zion’, telling them that they not only have a say in her body, and her decision to keep her child amid her career is something that should be viewed as beautiful, and not a foolish mistake.
Lauryn Hill will forever be displayed as one of the most influential Black women to this generation. Through her lyrics and personal life decisions, she continues to help Black girls and women all around the world who are going through life-altering moments, struggling to create an identity, and survive in a world constructed to devalue and mistreat Black women. During the peak of her career, Ms. Hill healed Black women during a time where we felt undervalued and now she unknowingly continues to do the same which is why The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill will continue to live on for the years to come.
