Lauryn Hill, the female vocalist of the Fugees, started a solo career with The Miseducation of (Columbia, 1998), an album that conquered both critics and audience. (She was barely 23, and pregnant with her second child). She displays a broad musical range, stretching from pop balladry to soul music (the sexy Nothing Even Matters, When It Hurts So Bad), from reggae (Forgive Them Father) to rap (Lost Ones and the hit Doo Wop, with horn fanfare, hammering piano and gospel harmonizing) from funk (Every Ghetto Every City) to world beat (the flamenco-tinged For Zion, her vocal tour de force). The concept album closes appropriately with two dramatic compositions, the pounding Everything Is Everything and the soul-searching The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, that provide her best definition of urban art. Elegant and sincere, Hill exposes her street persona and attains universality with her simple stories of girlhood. Hill's versatile, booming voice (that absorbs and internalizes elements of rap, soul crooning, gospel melisma, jazz scat and girl talk, is the voice of an entire generation.

Lauryn Hill was jailed in 2013 for three months because she refused to pay taxes. She returned to perform only in 2024.