Music: The Best Of 1998 Music

1 LAURYN HILL THE MISEDUCATION OF LAURYN HILL (Ruffhouse) Hill has given hip-hop the gift of her own heart: bruised, but still beating strong. She has shown that the genre can reach down deeper than bravado, deeper than rage, and dare to reveal an artist's emotional insecurities and romantic failings and then transform those feelings into music that's eloquent and universal. She's inspired by the old masters--Stevie Wonder, Bob Marley--but she reshapes her nostalgia into fresh sounds, blending neo-soul vocalese and rap rhymes, all powered by hip-hop beats. She soars beyond easy sampling and mere pastiche: her songs are of the...

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