The Lost Ones

Lauryn Hill

No, we're not pulling your leg. This is a genuine reggae record and Lauryn Hill really does make record of the week.

THE MISINFORMATION OF LAURYN HILL came as a revelation for many after the bland easy-listening of The Fugees. This seven inch single, if you can get hold of a copy, will come as a further revelation. LOST ONES is indeed the opening track to that album but relaunched here over Sly & Robbie's wild Mission Impossible rhythm. Beenie Man later gave this the DJ treatment, also on the Taxi label, with FOUNDATION. The Innocent Crew did a further DJ cut as IMPOSSIBLE TRAIN, later given a hip hop remix on the Rag Town label.

Lauryn Hill is nowhere credited on this record. Its provenance is, ahem, dubious to say the least and you will get this white label only from the most select of reggae emporia. The word is that this was mixed and pressed down in Jamaica. The ferocious yard mix certainly doesn't sound as though it could be from anywhere else. It delivers to Lauryn Hill's lyrics the biting edge that THE MISEDUCATION OF LAURYN HALL hinted at. Patra or Lady G would be proud of this hardboiled line of invective.

Check the flip side too, I WANT YOU BACK. Yes, that really is the original Jackson Five vocal over an unrestrained mix of the same Mission Impossible rhythm. Oh yes, and an unnamed hip hop MC bursts in one minute from the end and generally makes waves. Wild, or what?

The label states Remixed By The Platinum Crew. Platinum? Didn't Beenie Man make a record called PLATINUM on the Shocking Vibes label earlier this year, mixed by the Shocking Vibes crew? Not that I'm suggesting anything, I hasten to add.

Do all parties involved know about this piece of vinyl? Let alone Lauryn Hill, shouldn't someone be telling Michael Jackson? Who cares. Lauryn Hill should get down to Jamaica and make more singles like this one.