Tell Him by Ms. Lauryn Hill

L-Boogie sings about the sense of longing sometimes encompassed within love.

Transcript

Tell Him by Ms. Lauryn Hill

So, spoiler alert. Every season of Love Lines might include a song from Whitney Houston or Lauryn Hill. Maybe even both. Because those are my two favorite artists of all time. Ever. Janet Jackson might actually be in a three-way tie with them but she didn’t make many love songs. 

That’s the only reason she may not appear as often as the other two. Maybe if I start doing something like sensual Sundays, because her brand was sexiness. Though, let’s be clear, Miss Jackson is one on of the greatest entertainers in the history of entertaining. When we think of her, we think of immaculate dance routines and an alluring, magnetic persona. I wanted to be friends with Lauryn Hill. Wanted Whitney to love me, in a maternal way. And I wanted to BE Janet Jackson. Sometimes I still do! 

Lauryn Hill’s iconic status is interesting because it’s largely the result of one album, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill. She released, and contrary to popular opinion, I like her Unplugged album. But it’s Miseducation that was so good, such a classic, that she continues touring with it more than 20 years after the album’s release.

Talk about standing the test of time. Who else has reached the heights of L-Boogie’s success off of one album? Who else goes on tour and performs nothing but the same songs, from the same album, over and over and over again and we never tire of listening? I’m seriously trying to think of someone who has only released one studio album, and yet is considered an indisputable icon.

That to me is a testament to the flawless depth of The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill. This is one of those albums where you do not feel compelled to skip a single song. You may enjoy some more than others, but at no point will a song play that you flat-out do not ever want to hear.

Miseducation provided the backdrop for my first young adult relationship. My boyfriend and I would sit on the phone for hours, dissecting each song and declaring Nothing Even Matters, ours. We would play it at our wedding. The ceremony never came to fruition but I do talk about Nothing Even Matters in season one. 

This episode is about the greatness of that album as a whole though, and how every moment is magical. Every interlude intriguing. Every track. I mean every single one, masterful. And heartfelt. Poetic. And of substance. Ms. Hill raps and sings her way into our souls. And has there ever been anyone who does both so well? Whose rhyming skills and vocal range can each stand up against the greats? 

Lauryn Hill is a GOAT and so is this album. That is why it and she transcend generations of music. Even the bonus tracks are fire. If you can remember back to the time of CDs, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill had two. They were not even originally included in the track list. You just had to keep listening after the title track listed as the album’s end, until you got the surprise opening notes of Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You. Then, if you kept listening after that, Tell Him started to play.

Tell Him is a ballad of almost unbearable longing. Imagine desperately wanting to tell something to someone you love and not being able to. How emotionally excruciating that must be… Although, Ms. Hill makes it beautiful.

She starts by just imploring. “Tell him.” And then turns her gaze inward as she opens the song asking to be the best version of herself in love. It is a prayer. Like how when you were a kid you would promise to clean your room, get good grades, and obey your parents if God would just bring you this one thing you wanted. 

Except, Lauryn doesn’t ask for anything in return. She just wants us, you, the listener, whomever this request is asked of to Tell Him. Tell him I need him. Tell him I love him. And it’ll be alright.

She never says who this “him” is or where he’s at. But I hoped that he received Lauryn’s message. Her passionate plea. Hell, I wanted to TELL HIM after hearing this song. It’s clear he’s someone she loves, deeply. But we don’t know exactly in what capacity. It sounds like a lover, perhaps a past lover. Is she hoping to reconcile? We don’t know if he’s simply somewhere far away, in the hospital, in the military, impaired in some way, or incarcerated—but we know that wherever he is and whatever the reason, communication is challenging. A third party must be enlisted to help. Or, perhaps the record itself is her way of delivering this message.

She never says if you do this, I’ll do that. Yet, it is clear from the first few lines that she’s bargaining. Or at least affirming.

Let me be patient, let me be kind
Make me unselfish without being blind

These lines resonate with me as, make me who I need to be to make this work. For love, like life is all about balance. I want to be trusting but not foolish. I want to be understanding and forgiving but not self-abandoning. Soft but not a punching bag or a doormat. Attentive but not obsessive. I want to believe without being naïve. 

The answer is always somewhere in the middle. 

So, we ask for the best of us to be revealed. If I can get to where I need to be in order for the love I desire to find me—whether or not it does is a formality. I’ve conquered the hardest part, in service to myself. The rest is out of my hands.

I think that’s what Lauryn Hill is doing here. She wants “him” to know she cares. And also, while he’s away, she’s nurturing the parts of her most critical to sustaining love.

And I just adore how she ends her list of things to tell him. Because yes, we want to know that we are loved and wanted, even needed somehow. But sometimes, all we really need to hear is, “Everything is gonna be alright.”