Hip-Hop And The BibleChikamu

“Lauryn Hill Embeds Bible Verses Within Popular Songs”

Grammy Award-winning superstar, Lauryn Hill, first captured the world’s attention with her performance in the box-office hit, Sister Act 2, in which she played Catholic high-school student Rita Louise Watson. In one of the film’s most famous scenes, she sang a duet of the iconic hymn “His Eye Is On The Sparrow” (with Tanya Blount) that was derived from Psalm 32:8 and Matthew 6:26.

It wouldn’t be the last time Hill would rely on the Bible for inspiration. In fact, on her multi-platinum selling debut solo album The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, she based much of the song “Tell Him” on 1 Corinthians 13.

Let me be patient let me be kind

Make me unselfish without being blind

Though I may suffer I'll envy it not

And endure what comes

'Cause he's all that I got and tell him

Now I may have faith to make mountains fall

But if I lack love then I am nothin' at all

I can give away everything I possess

But left without love then I have no happiness

I'll never be jealous

And I won't be too proud

'Cause love is not boastful

Ooh and love is not loud

Now I may have wisdom and knowledge on earth

But if I speak wrong then what is it worth?

See what we now know is nothing compared

To the love that was shown when our lives were spared and tell him

Hill also invokes Luke 23:34 throughout the song “Forgive Them Father,” and confirmed that her biblical references throughout the album were intentional.

“Gospel music is music inspired by the gospels,” Hill was quoted in the book Lauryn Hill: She’s Got That Thing. “In a huge respect, a lot of this music turned out to be just that. During this album, I turned to the Bible and wrote songs that I drew comfort from.”

And then, on her critically acclaimed live album Unplugged 2.0, Hill continued her biblically-themed lyrics including several direct biblical quotes and paraphrases on the song “Oh Jerusalem.”

From Romans 7:24:

Oh wretched man that I am, who will deliver me

From the body of this death?

From Proverbs 3:5-7:

Trust in the Lord with all thy heart

And lay not to thine, oh an understanding in all thy ways

Acknowledge him, and he shall direct our paths

Be not wise in thine own eyes and you can follow him

From John 15:4-5

Abide in me and I in you, as the branch cannot bear

Fruit of itself except in the vine

I am the vine, ye are the branches, he that lives in me

And I in him, the same bring forth much fruit

Without me, you can do nothing

During an interlude from that same album, Hill paraphrased 2 Corinthians 10:12 while discussing her desire to be true to herself and not conform to what others expected her to be:

“Here’s a scripture in the Bible that we, what does it say, it says ‘We compare ourselves amongst ourselves,’ you know. That’s not the standard. You already are the standard. What are you trying to fit into a standard for? We were created to be individual standards, you know. And we’re trying to fit into a standard? It doesn’t make any sense, you know. So now I’m just, you know, after all that, I’m just ready to be me.”