3. Every Ghetto, Every City by Lauryn Hill (1998)
Within the emotional journey and phenomenon that is The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill (1998), "Every Ghetto, Every City" feels like a more lighthearted trip through Lauryn Hill's childhood in New Jersey. As such, the song is not intensely focused on music history, though it does utilize it to put the listener in a nostalgic space, the musical and spiritual inspiration being "I Wish" by Stevie Wonder.
As Hill traces her life through memories, from her very young days near Ivy Hill in Newark to the drill teams on Munn Street, I believe in East Orange, each verse grows with her, utilizing hip-hop to continuously move forward in time. When the second verse begins, a voice can be heard beat boxing while someone claps on beat, and when the third verse begins, a DJ is scratching a record.
Similar to hip-hop as an art form, community comes before anything else in "Every Ghetto, Every City." While Hill name-drops rap artists such as Doug E. Fresh, Slick Rick, and Biz Markie, this is not simply because she was a fan of rap in the '80s, but rather that these were some, but not all, of the artists that were played within her community of black kids in New Jersey.
As is obvious, the scope of music played in Hill's childhood surroundings is not at all limited to rap, something which the genre itself highlights through being centered initially on the vast selections of the DJ. Hill references hip-hop dances of the time like the Wop or the Biz Dance, but also says "jack, jack, jack ya body," a call back to the 1986 house hit "Jack Your Body" by Steve "Silk" Hurley, which would have been played in the same environments Hill was hearing and dancing to hip-hop.
Still, one of my favorite moments on the song is a hip-hop reference, specifically the lines "Hillside brings beef with the cops, Self-Destruction record drops, and everybody's name was Muslim now." At the end of the last line, Hill says the Arabic phrase "Wa alaykumu s-salam," in reference to people converting to Islam.
Simultaneously, Hill's background vocals sing what sounds like "Children partying, women producing," a slight alteration of the opening lyrics to "Heaven and Hell Is on Earth" by the 20th Century Steel Band. This is a clever reference connected to her mentioning of "Self-Destruction," as that section of "Heaven and Hell Is on Earth" was famously sampled for that song.
In short, I like this track very much.
Continued on next slide...