Monday Music: Everything Is Everything
Jan. 19th, 2009 06:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jlhI thought a lot about this week's post—should I resist the MLK Day/Obama Inauguration push, or just go with it? And today, I decided to just go with it. I bring you Lauryn Hill's "Everything Is Everything."
Lauryn Hill came to prominence as part of The Fugees, singing a cover of "Killing Me Softly" that exploded in 1996. In 1998, she released a solo album, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, which won the Grammy for Album of the Year—and it really was the album of that year. The singles were all over the radio and MTV, and were popular as much for their catchiness as for the message behind them.
I'm singling out "Everything Is Everything," the second-to-last track on the album, again mostly because I just love how it sounds. I live in Brooklyn now, in a predominantly African-American neighborhood, and this is my favorite walking around town song, probably at least partly because of the superb video in which Lauryn Hill is wandering around Manhattan, which is actually a record—the Empire State Building is the spindle, a bridge the tuner arm, the streets the grooves—and every time there's a scratch in the song, there's a little quake for the folks on the ground.
"Everything Is Everything" always reminds me of Stevie Wonder's Songs in the Key of Life, almost as though it's a missing track on that album. She evokes very similar themes in her lyrics—looking around at the problems of the moment, looking back to African heritage, and forward to better times ahead:
But as much as it sounds like a 70s Stevie song, it's also incredibly modern. The hip-hop beat is built on funk, after all, and of course there's the liberal use of scratching throughout the song. And there's the rap, placed right up front between the two verses, rather than after the second verse as hip-hop soul is often structure these days, that rhymes Baptist with Cleopatras, Serengeti with Sister Betty (Shabazz, Malcolm X's widow), human being with Nassau Coliseum.
I'll leave you with the end of the second verse, which feels particularly appropriate today:
Buy the song at iTunes
Buy the CD at Amazon
Lauryn Hill came to prominence as part of The Fugees, singing a cover of "Killing Me Softly" that exploded in 1996. In 1998, she released a solo album, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, which won the Grammy for Album of the Year—and it really was the album of that year. The singles were all over the radio and MTV, and were popular as much for their catchiness as for the message behind them.
I'm singling out "Everything Is Everything," the second-to-last track on the album, again mostly because I just love how it sounds. I live in Brooklyn now, in a predominantly African-American neighborhood, and this is my favorite walking around town song, probably at least partly because of the superb video in which Lauryn Hill is wandering around Manhattan, which is actually a record—the Empire State Building is the spindle, a bridge the tuner arm, the streets the grooves—and every time there's a scratch in the song, there's a little quake for the folks on the ground.
"Everything Is Everything" always reminds me of Stevie Wonder's Songs in the Key of Life, almost as though it's a missing track on that album. She evokes very similar themes in her lyrics—looking around at the problems of the moment, looking back to African heritage, and forward to better times ahead:
Everything is everythingIt's also her vocals—listen to her; she sounds like Stevie, especially during that period. Not to mention the la-la chorus, the almost percussive string arrangement, the beat that carries us along.
What is meant to be, will be
After winter, must come spring
Change, it comes eventually
But as much as it sounds like a 70s Stevie song, it's also incredibly modern. The hip-hop beat is built on funk, after all, and of course there's the liberal use of scratching throughout the song. And there's the rap, placed right up front between the two verses, rather than after the second verse as hip-hop soul is often structure these days, that rhymes Baptist with Cleopatras, Serengeti with Sister Betty (Shabazz, Malcolm X's widow), human being with Nassau Coliseum.
I'll leave you with the end of the second verse, which feels particularly appropriate today:
Let's love ourselves then we can't failLauryn Hill: Everything Is Everything
To make a better situation
Tomorrow, our seeds will grow
All we need is dedication
Buy the song at iTunes
Buy the CD at Amazon
