"A Rose Is Still a Rose" is a 1998 single written and produced by Lauryn Hill and recorded and released by singer Aretha Franklin off the album of the same name. Written by Hill for Franklin, the song is feminist-based, focused on a motherly figure giving advice to a younger woman who keeps getting into bad relationships. Throughout the song, Franklin advises that in spite of everything and despite the woman's "scorned roses and thorn crowns" that the woman is "still a rose". Elements of the song "What I Am" by Edie Brickell and the New Bohemians were sung throughout the song by Hill herself. The video features Franklin, Hill and other female R&B singers such as Faith Evans, Changing Faces, and Amel Larrieux and featured Elise Neal in the video as the protagonist. Released in 1998, the son