Lauryn Hill

In celebration of Women’s History Month, The Cardinal spotlights their choices of influential women from around the world.

Julian Wheeler, Staff Writer

March 27, 2026

Lauryn Hill was born May 26, 1975 in South Orange, New Jersey and is a Grammy winning singer, rapper, songwriter, and record producer.

Growing up in New Jersey had exposed her to music and shaped her path to becoming a singer. Her early life living in New Jersey heavily influenced her music, combining mixes of soul, hip hop, and R&B with personal and social themes. Hill won 5 grammys in 1999 which included Album of the Year which made her the first hip-hop artist to achieve this. Hill’s solo album The Miseducation Of Lauryn HIll is frequently listed as one of the greatest albums of all time and has earned long time recognition for shaping modern music.

Hill was a huge influence to many women but a huge influence to many other people as well. She showed that women can be more than just stereotypical roles in music such as backing vocals but that women can excel as lyricists, singers, and producers all at once. Her solo album The Miseducation Of Lauryn HIll showed that women could lead and excel as songwriters and singers creatively. Hill openly addressed topics such as love, heartbreak, motherhood, and social issues, this made women feel heard and encouraged them to embrace their true selves and who they are instead of falling into societal expectations.

“I feel that societal expectations need to be broken and people should be able to do what they want without the judgement of others and everyone should feel comfortable with themselves and who they are.” ~ Lauryn Hill

Hill’s influence on music was huge and shaped the sound of modern music and paved the way for many new artists. She had combined soul, R&B, and hip-hop and inspired newer artists such as Beyonce, Adele, J Cole, and others to experiment genre fusion. Her poetic music heavily raised the bar for storytelling and lyricism in music which has artists focusing on personal themes, social issues, and emotional depth in their music. Hill was one of the first women in hip-hop to write, produce, and arrange her own work.

About the Contributor

Julian Wheeler, Staff Writer

Julian Wheeler is a 17 year old senior at Hoover High School. He plays baseball for Hoover’s varsity team and likes to go out and play baseball whenever he gets the chance because it gives him time to clear things off his mind. Julian’s three main interests are baseball and listening to music, anytime you see him there’s a 90% chance he has his headphones on or at least on his head because he listens to music 24/7. He doesn’t usually like going out. He’d rather stay out home but there are only really two ways he´ll spend his free time out of the house is if he goes out to play sports or go on walks while listening to music. His favorite food is ceviche and it’s always been his favorite food since he was a little kid. His favorite movie is one of the Friday movies which is Friday After Next and his favorite show is The Regular Show. Julian wants to go to college to study psychology and become a therapist or a LPCC, Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor. He hopes to be accepted into Cal State San Marcos or SDSU to pursue his career. He thinks he can make this world a better place by helping people who have mental illnesses such as bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and more. He thinks people who have mental illnesses get treated very poorly by society. He believes people who have these illnesses deserve better help with all of their problems.