Let's play a round of Name That Star, shall we? Here are the clues: She's a hip-hop artist as celebrated for her singing as for her rapping. She started out as a member of a group, but didn't really make a name for herself until after she went solo and MTV put her video into heavy rotation. Praised as a paragon of pop feminism, she's proud of the role motherhood has played in her artistic life.

Oh, and she had her first hit in 1989.

If you answered former Fugees member Lauryn Hill, you're a few years off. Because five years before Hill -- then just a member of the Fugees -- hit the pop charts with "Nappy Heads," Neneh Cherry had a Top-Five hit with "Buffalo Stance."

Cherry's sound mixed hip-hop and soul, reggae and dance music, just as Hill's does. Cherry's attitude was cocky but compassionate, and her lyrics questioned sexual stereotypes and cultural belligerence in much the same way Hill's do.

Hill's current album, "The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill," was one of the most celebrated releases of last year. Not only did it earn her five Grammys, including Album of the Year, but it put her atop numerous critics' lists and made her Entertainment Weekly's "Entertainer of the Year." Needless to say, her tour (which begins a three-night stand at DAR Constitution Hall in Washington this evening) is one of the hottest tickets around.

But in the summer of '89, when "Buffalo Stance" was a hit, hip-hop was a real anomaly in the pop charts. Back then, the Top 40 was dominated by dance pop and power ballads, with artists like Richard Marx, Bette Midler and Madonna scoring big hits.

By contrast, hip-hop was a major player on the pop charts in the fall of '98. So when Hill went Top-10 with "(Doo Wop) That Thing," she had plenty of company in the form of Jay-Z, Missy Elliott and Mase, artists whose sound was not entirely dissimilar from her own.

Hill, in other words, is lucky to be recording at a time when hip-hop is fast becoming the dominant strain in popular music -- particularly for people college age or younger. "All they know is hip-hop," says Danyel Smith, editor-in-chief at Vibe. "There was never a time for them when there wasn't hip-hop. They've grown up with this.

"For a whole generation, [hip-hop] is the thing. It's the only thing. Whoever does it best, wins. And Lauryn is doing it best."

For her part, Hill credits the attention she pays to lyrics with much of her success. In interview after interview, she has stressed the importance of putting real content into pop records.

"A lot of kids don't seem to use all of the power that is in the music," she told Michael Gonzales of the hip-hop magazine the Source. "We can communicate such greatness, but too often we settle and have nothing to say."

Hill definitely has something to say. "She's writing real songs that really mean something," says Smith, who pulls an example from "The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill." "To be able to put together something as literally like dynamite as 'Lost Ones,' and then, two songs later, be singing a song about how everybody wanted her to have an abortion and she chose not to -- it floors me, in a way that another artist hasn't in a long time."

Some critics have argued that Hill took the easy way in, gaining recognition early on through cover songs, like the version of Roberta Flack's "Killing Me Softly" she recorded with the Fugees, or her solo remake of "Can't Take My Eyes Off of You." But such carping misses the point, because what made Hill matter wasn't what she sang, but how.

"She makes a song her own," says Smith. "Like when Aretha [Franklin] did Otis Redding's 'Respect.' She is underrated for that." Smith adds that there's also a certain commercial canniness to Hill's approach. "It's a smart way to get middle-aged radio programmers into playing your songs," she says.

Still, Hill acknowledges that the pop-friendliness of "Killing Me Softly" led to high expectations for her solo project. "I think people probably wanted me to do the formulaic thing, like 'Killing Me Softly, Part 3,' " she told Karu Daniels in a radio interview. "I wanted to do something different. I stuck to my soul and shot from the heart.

"There was probably a little anxiety there, but you know the album's been well received, and all I could say is just how much I really love the fact that there are people who can relate to my music and have supported it. I'm so appreciative, and I feel so blessed for that."

Lauryn Hill

When: Tonight, tomorrow and Thursday, 8 p.m.

Where: DAR Constitution Hall, 1776 D. St. N.W., Washington

Tickets: Sold out

Call: 410-481-7328 or 202-347-1581 Pub Date: 3/16/99