Back in 1998, Lauryn Hill’s debut solo offering, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, earned her the honor of being the first woman ever to be nominated for 10 Grammys in one year and the first woman to ever win five Grammys in one night, including the first Album of the Year award for a hip-hop album.
Fast-forward 17 years and Hill’s magnum opus is still being bestowed with accolades.
The Library of Congress’ National Recording Preservation Board recently announced plans to induct the album into the national library calling it “culturally, historically, and aesthetically significant.”
Miseducation is one of 25 recordings added to the registry this year. Other recordings this year include Ben E. King’s “Stand By Me,” The Righteous Brothers’ “You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling” and Sly & The Family Stone’s 1969 album, Stand!.
“Congress understood the importance of protecting America’s aural patrimony when it passed the National Recording Preservation Act 15 years ago,” says the Library of Congress’ James H. Billington. “By preserving these recordings, we safeguard the words, sounds and music that embody who we are as a people and a nation.”
2Pac, De La Soul, and the Sugar Hill Gang are among the short list of hip-hop artists to also have their work inducted into the Library of Congress.
