Lauryn Hill tops Apple Music's top 100 albums list with 1998 solo debut
Apple Music has crowned "The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill" its top album of all time.
The music streaming service launched its inaugural 100 Best Albums list last week, revealing parts of it over the course of 10 days.
Hill's 1998 album was her first and only solo album. Apple Music described it as "a stunningly raw, profound look into the spiritual landscape not just of one of the era’s biggest stars, but of the era itself."
The album features the singles “Doo Wop (That Thing),” “Ex-Factor” and “Everything Is Everything."
Apple Music experts and a handful of artists, including Maren Morris, Pharrell Williams, J Balvin, Charli XCX, Mark Hoppus, Honey Dijon and Nia Archives, put together the list, according to music streaming service. Songwriters, producers and industry professionals also weighed in, but Apple Music did not name specific people from those groups.
Hill became the first woman to earn five Grammys in one night in 1999 for the album, according to the Grammys website. She took home best new artist, best R&B album and album of the year.
A video posted by Apple Music and Hill on Wednesday showed the artist being presented with the honor.
“This is my award, but it’s a rich, deep narrative and involves so many people, and so much sacrifice, and so much time, and so much collective love,” the Fugees star said in the video. “This is our celebration.”
Michael Jackson's "Thriller" took Apple Music's No. 2 spot, with the Beatles' "Abbey Road" coming in at No. 3. Prince & The Revolution's "Purple Rain" and Frank Ocean's "Blonde" rounded out the top five.
Other albums that made the top 10 list include: Stevie Wonder's "Songs in the Key of Life," Kendrick Lamar's "good kid, m.A.A.d city," Amy Winehouse's "Back to Black," Nirvana's "Nevermind" and Beyoncé's "Lemonade."
Apple Music said in a news release last week that the top 100 list is a "an editorial statement, fully independent of any streaming numbers." It described the list as "a love letter to the records that have shaped the world music lovers live and listen in."
The list joins countless other similar lists that have been compiled, namely by critics and music-focused publications.
Jeremy D. Larson, reviews director at Pitchfork, pointed out in a post on X that unlike other lists, Apple Music's does not include bylines.
"Unbylined writing is at best marketing copy and at worst AI-driven, and a canon made by a faceless cabal is literally meaningless," he wrote, referring to artificial intelligence.
