The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill is widely regarded as one of the greatest albums of all time in any genre. The writing was raw, cutting, and soulful with a colorful palette for hip-hop and R&B across history. Of all the classics scattered across the record, the duet with the late D’Angelo “Nothing Even Matters” remains unbelievably sweet. The pair warmly croon over how the perfect love can make everything else in life seem trivial. All the concerns of the world fade away when enraptured in the gaze and glow of your lover. “Now the skies could fall, not even if my boss should call. The world, it seems so very small ’cause nothing even matters at all,” Hill coos.
With Lauryn Hill set to honor D’Angelo at the 2026 Grammy Awards, it’s important to look back at how they made their all-time record. In the 1999 biography She’s Got That Thing, author Chris Nickson wrote that the record centered around her romance with Rohan Marley at the time. Moreover, she desired to create a classic duet in the same vein as “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” with Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell or “The Closer I Get To You” with Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway. With D’Angelo sharing a similar mindset, Hill thought the timing was perfect.
Behind the Scenes of the Timeless Lauryn Hill and D’Angelo Duet ‘Nothing Even Matters’
“We have a similar philosophy,” Lauryn explained. I wanted it to be about what it’s like when your back starts to tingle and your stomach feels funny.” However, she didn’t quite understand where to take the record at first. When producer Vada Nobles first played “Nothing Even Matters” for her, she was particularly stumped. Additionally, her label was antsy to hurry and finalize the record. Consequently, there was immense stress to come up with something.
Then, fellow producer Che Vicious (FKA Che Guevera) recalled how the signature snaps on the song opened up the entire process for Lauryn Hill. “I was messing around with these finger snap sounds for the D’Angelo song and she started coming with the song out of her head. We built the record around this weird snap pattern. That’s how it was with her — the creative process wasn’t this strict environment,” he told Rolling Stone back in 2008.
As for D’Angelo, he recalled having a great time singing “Nothing Even Matters” with Lauryn Hill around the same time he was crafting his classic 2000 album Voodoo. “Collaborating with Lauryn was very cool. She was warm and sweet,” the late legend said. “Originally, we were going to swap tunes for each other’s projects because I was working on Voodoo at the same time and my keyboardist James Poyser was also working with her. I went to her house in New Jersey, she played a lot of songs for me and gave me a rough copy to listen to. When Lauryn and I went into in the studio together, I laid down my vocals in the course of an hour.”
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