How Lauryn Hill discovered a pre-fame John Legend for this classic track
Former Fugees member Lauryn Hill is widely considered an icon in hip-hop, and her 1998 debut album, The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill, is an absolute classic. The 16-track LP broke records upon its release and debuted at number one on the Billboard 200.
With a fusion of neo-soul, hip-hop and gospel, the body of work is considered a masterpiece and earned Hill five Grammys. The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill has been praised by a slew of musicians and has been dubbed “one of the most incredible albums ever made” by Yonkers vocalist Mary J Blige.
Although the album’s credits suggest Hill produced, wrote, and arranged the entire project, many people contributed to its creation, including her Fugee bandmate Pras Michel, D’Angelo, her friend Rohan Marley, and surprisingly, John Legend.
Alongside the album’s audio engineer and programmer, Vada Nobles, in 2008, Hill sat down for an in-depth interview to celebrate a decade since the project’s release. While breaking down the creation of the various tracks, the ‘Ex-Factor’ singer made some interesting revelations.
In the late 1990s, John Legend was in college. However, through a friend of a friend, he met Hill, who was extremely impressed with him as a pianist. Their meeting happened before Legend had even entered the music industry.
When she began working on The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill, the vocalist was recording in a small New Jersey studio owned by a friend of Nobles’. Without the fancy equipment used by other similar artists on major labels, the ‘To Zion’ singer was happy with her smaller setup.
Recalling how the song ‘Everything Is Everything’ came about, Vada Nobles recalled, “Lauryn didn’t need to use fancy studios — she was down. The title concept came from Donny Hathaway. Then John Legend came by and played. He was trying to get his career off the ground.”
‘Everything Is Everything’ was the first time Legend had ever contributed to an official album released by a major label. According to the pianist and singer himself, while Hill was recording her LP, he was at Penn State University, and the entire thing was an accident.
Speaking to Rolling Stone in 2008 alongside Hill, Legend told the story from his perspective, vividly detailing, “I was in the spring of my junior year at the University of Pennsylvania. A friend invited me to give her a ride to Lauryn’s house in Jersey. Lauryn was working on ‘Everything Is Everything.’ I sang and played a couple of songs for her.”
After playing for her, Hill was impressed. Recalling what happened next, Legend continued, “She asked me to play piano on the track. She guided me a little bit, but it was pretty simple because I was playing along with a string part that was already there. I became known around campus as the dude who played on ‘Everything Is Everything.’ It was my little claim to fame at Penn for my whole senior year!”
However, The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill would become the emcee’s only project. her abrupt exit from the culture confused many and disgruntled an entire genre. For the entirety of the early 2000s, Hill held the record for the highest first-week album sales by a female rapper. However, her record was broken in 2010 when Nicki Minaj released her debut album, Pink Friday.
Irrespective of this, hip-hop still holds Hill in high regard. In fact, Minaj even dropped to her knees upon meeting Hill in reverence of her.