95 North. . . The Newspaper

Lauryn Hill, of Orange County New Jersey, still stands today as one of the greatest female rappers of all time. Her career, which started out with the famed super-group (featuring Wyclef Jean) the Fugees churned out deeply meaningful, soulful hip-hop in songs like  "Killing me Softly ", which explored emotional territory previously unexpressed in mass-selling hip-hop. The Fugees owed much of their success to Hill's talent as a singer, rapper, and musician. She's handy with the guitar, political theory, and theology, a triple-threat of sorts that armed her to compose songs that were confrontational, meditative, and most of all. . . true. Hill built on her success with the Fugees by cutting one of the most critically claimed and essential hip-hop albums of all time, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill , released in 1998 (the golden year of rap? Outkast's Aquemini   was released the same year). Fame did something funny to Lauryn Hill, like it does to so many ot...