MTV Unplugged 2.0

Sound DNA

• Soul & Funk
• Contemporary R&B

• stripped-back
• earnest
• confessional

About

When Lauryn Hill performed on MTV’s <i>Unplugged</i> in 2001, some critics were dismayed that she didn’t reprise the songs from her blockbuster 1998 debut album, <i>The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill</i>. Opting for pared-down acoustic guitar over hip-hop boom-bap, though, was a natural evolution for a musician who had once, notoriously, covered Roberta Flack’s “Killing Me Softly” with Fugees. In the nearly two-hour performance of previously unheard original music—and one gorgeous cover of Bob Marley’s “So Much Things To Say”—Hill debuted a suite of crackling, pensive songs that further proved her stylistic breadth, injecting hip-hop soul into griot folk, and underpinning rap interludes with spirituality and demands for liberation. The initial disdain for <i>Unplugged</i> upon its 2022 release reflected a prevailing feeling at the time about the way popular musicians were expected to stay in their respective, often constricting lanes—especially if they were Black women. Critics perceived Hill’s lengthy, sometimes opaque between-song banter as an indication of an emotional breakdown in real time. And yet her virtuosity was undeniable, showcasing not just her vocal agility but her proficiency on classical guitar, which she strummed as well as fingerpicked—displaying talents many fans weren’t previously aware she possessed. <i>Unplugged</i> is a snapshot of a woman growing and stretching out her muscles. And while some songs here might sound like sketches—Hill admits as much—she projected an honesty and courage to present exactly where she was at the time. The album also elucidated the thinking behind the emotional turbulence that had fueled her prior album: Hill balanced quips about her own emotional state (“I know everybody’s in the same mess”) with musings about fame and music-industry disillusionment. “Whenever we submit our will to someone else’s opinion,” she says on “Interlude 1,” “a part of us dies.” While its folkiness may have not captured everyone’s heart at the time, <i>Unplugged</i> has had a massive cultural impact: The vocal interpolation of “Mystery of Iniquity,” a protest against state violence rooted in biblical scripture, provided the backbone of Kanye West’s 2004 megahit “All Falls Down.” Like all of Hill’s precious little recorded music, the clarity of <i>Unplugged</i> rings across decades.

via Apple Music

Tracklist

Credits