Lauryn Hill - MTV Unplugged No. 2.0

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Free Music Notes for MTV Unplugged No. 2.0

Free Music Review: THE REAL LAURYN HILL(?)
Hit: 5 Stars

That was Lauryn Hill in 1999.A superstar.A beautiful,wise,
wistful New Jersey-based sista who was once a member of one of the most acclaimed(and best-selling) hip hop acts of the nineties(The Fugees)."The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill" accomplished Lauryn as possibly the Bob Marley of her generation.A wise,dredlocked prophet speaking life
in the form of lyrics.The fact that Lauryn's music broke through to so many different type of people and auidences attested to the polished articute powers of her sound.Lauryn was a woman who many said "had it all together".

Come three and a half years later after "Miseducation"'s August
1998 release,according to Ms. Hill,everything wasn't "all good"
in the spotlight.On "MTV Unplugged 2.0", her long-awaited (semi)-followup to the aforementioned "Miseducation",Lauryn speaks in brutally honest terms after REALLY discovering herself,finding God on different levels,rediscovering love,and the 'burdens' of her huge success.Yet she explores all these subjects in song with no backup band.No backing vocalists.No beatbox.No drum machine.None of that.Just a guitar and her voice.

Recorded live in the summer of 2001,"Unplugged" overflows with pure knowledge and an affective self-renewal.Early in the disc's
opening,Ms. Hill freely tells the auidence that she's not playing dress up anymore and that she's not going to make her herself a "perfect singer" of which is expected just to please the public.That accounts for the rough and raw vibe of the material presented.Lauryn's voice cracks several times.She flubs
lyrics and guitar chords several times,unapolgetically.

She also spends as much time as she does playing talking to the auidence.Reminiscent(as one critic stated) of the famous scene in the 1975 film,"Nashville" where a "derenged" country diva has a meltdown while performing her intensley personal songs,
Lauryn just lets it flow.
"Mr. Intentional","Adam Lives In Theory","Freedom Time",
"Just Like Water",and "I Get Out" are all deeply personal,
multi-facted bare acoustic testaments.No cutesy vocal tricks.
No show-off guitar tricks.Just Lauryn's suprisingly accurate guitar plucking and her trademark wisely raspy voice.
And yet it sounds pure and full.The emotion is not just there it's everywhere.
Yet it's the "I Gotta Find Peace Of Mind" and "Mystery Of
Iniquity" that are the most powerful songs.Both sway easily like
a gentle breeze over a sea.Both feature some of Lauryn's most poigant,complex lyrics to date.The listener feels different after these two songs are finished.It moves you.

"Fantasy is what people want.But reality is what they need",
Lauryn gently yet blunty puts it on the beginning of "Adam
Lives In Theory".It couldn't have been put any better.
"Unplugged" is a brave move on Hill's part.It wasn't expected.
And it's not safe.Not chewable ditties that'll make the public
comfortable.And that'll make the public turn their nose at this refreshingly honest songcraft.This is deep spritual,self-realized music.
I'm not trying to sound overly righteous but I just want to really show the public that Lauryn as she says repeatedly on a spoken interlude between songs is not "frontin'".This a down-to-
earth,earthy woman who just obviously on "Unplugged" wants to discover her sound's real meaning organically.Flaws and all.

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