Intellectual Misogynoir

Since its inception, the genre of hip-hop has been celebrated for addressing the socioeconomic status of African Americans and encouraging critical thought surrounding American society and its corruption. Throughout the late twentieth century, rhythm and blues (R&B) conveyed similar intellectual and politically-charged messaging to hip-hop but has historically received less credit for its scholarship and musicianship. The lack of recognition surrounding R&B is caused in part by R&B's significant association with the experience of Black women, contrasting hip-hop's lack of representation for this aspect of Black culture. The album The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill finds itself at the intersection of both of these genres, and despite the sonic mutualism between R&B and hip-hop during the 1990s, the album and therefore Lauryn Hill herself are only given intellectual credit when referring to their overlap with hip-hop. Concerning DuBois' formulation of double consciousness, this triple consciousness of the African American woman that Hill utilizes has been both severely undermined by society and understudied by scholars. Through the lens of The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, this thesis recognizes that R&B women of the late twentieth century use their own artistic and intellectual ingenuity to create music for social and political change. This thesis explores this dilemma of intellectual misogynoir through (1) a lyrical analysis of the Black scholarship used on the album, (2) a musical analysis of Black feminism in Black American popular music and genre, and (3) the sonic exploration of the album's musical influences through sampling.