Lauryn Hill finally got her diamond. Not a literal diamond, of course: Her 1998 debut solo album, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, has sold over 10 million copies in the United States as of February 18. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) grants diamond certification to albums that achieve outstanding commercial success. While 10 million is an enormous milestone in itself, if an album goes diamond it is worth and, in fact, only right to give it a listen regardless of its polish or your personal tastes.

There are a little over 100 diamond certified albums in the pop music sphere; among rap and hip hop artists, only Eminem, 2Pac, The Notorious B.I.G., Outkast, Beastie Boys and MC Hammer have been given the honor. Now Hill has joined the hip hop diamond club, one with fewer than 10 members, as their first female MC. Above all, the lasting musical impact of Miseducation makes this record particularly remarkable.

Miseducation debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 and, while masterful, proved to be a challenging work which charged the hip hop scene with a very important task. Hill showed off both her outstanding rapping and singing skills as a member of the hip hop group Fugees and exercised both vocal styles on her solo album as well. There are, however, only two songs in which every verse is rapped, while the rap part of those songs with verses which feature both singing and rapping is minimal. And so an intriguing dispute arises here: Typically such an album would have been classified simply as R&B/Soul, but Miseducation was also classified as hip hop.

Perhaps this was because it featured production that relied on sampling and loops and the lyrics took aim at socio political themes, characteristics associated with hip hop as typified by rappers. This was an industry-changing event that shook the foundation of genre as it had long since come to be known in the minds of those in the music field and fans alike. Most notably, the third single, “Everything is Everything,” features two parts where Hill’s rapping and singing intersect, a rarity at the time. It was from that moment that the division of rap and hip hop into subgenres by vocal and production style began in earnest. Miseducation provided music lovers with an unparalleled listening experience while simultaneously sparking debate over how to define genres and their subcategories.
With the album suddenly jumping up to diamond certified levels, and my hopes for Hill to release a new album long since dashed, I revisited Miseducation from beginning to end. Even nearly 23 years after its release, the excitement of each and every song and the thrill they provide when presented together remains unchanged. It’s said that time decides the classics. While that idea isn’t wrong, there are also works like Miseducation that earn the right to be called classics immediately upon their release. Congratulations are due for being crowned with the diamond; as for me, I am once again a student of the problematic school Hill has established.

TRIVIA

Diamond Certification
The RIAA’s industry-standard certification of record sales, on top of gold (500,000) and platinum (one million). Diamond represents the zenith of commercial performance. The full list of diamond certified rap and hip hop albums, other than Lauryn Hill’s, is as follows: MC Hammer’s Please Hammer Don’t Hurt ’Em (1990); The Notorious B.I.G.’s Life After Death (1997); Outkast’s Speakerboxxx/The Love Below (2003); Eminem’s The Marshall Mathers LP (2000) and The Eminem Show (2002); Beastie Boys’ Licensed to Ill (1986); and 2Pac’s All Eyez on Me (1996).