MTV Unplugged No. 2.0

MTV Unplugged No. 2.0 is a live album by American singer and rapper Lauryn Hill. The performance comes from her 2002 MTV Unplugged special recorded on July 21, 2001 at MTV Studios in Times Square, New York City. Hill abandoned the hip hop sounds of her debut album The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill (1998) in favor of folk and soul songs she performed with an acoustic guitar. The songs were interspersed with spoken interludes about her personal and artistic struggles.

This article is about the album by Lauryn Hill. For the album by Dashboard Confessional, see MTV Unplugged 2.0.
MTV Unplugged No. 2.0
Live album by
Lauryn Hill
ReleasedMay 7, 2002
RecordedJuly 21, 2001
VenueMTV Studios in New York
Genre
Length106:36
LabelColumbia
Producer
Lauryn Hill chronology
The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill
(1998)		 MTV Unplugged No. 2.0
(2002)

When MTV Unplugged No. 2.0 was released, it received mediocre reviews and did not sell well. Most critics found Hill's performances self-indulgent and repetitive, although some appreciated the album as a bold and sincere change in artistic direction. It has been certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America, having shipped one million copies in the United States.

Music and lyrics

For MTV Unplugged No. 2.0, Hill departed from the hip hop sounds of her debut album The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill (1998) in favor of austerely performed acoustic soul and folk songs. She jokingly described herself as a "hip-hop folk singer",[1] and according to Robert Hilburn, assumed the role of a folk singer accompanied only by her acoustic guitar.[2] Rather than singing any of her previous hits, Hill debuted all new songs in a folk style and, in between songs, spoke at length about her personal and artistic struggles.[3]

Release and reception
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[4]
Encyclopedia of Popular Music[5]
Entertainment WeeklyB–[6]
The Guardian[7]
NME5/10[8]
Q[9]
Rolling Stone[10]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide[11]
Slant Magazine[12]
The Village VoiceD–[13]

MTV Unplugged No. 2.0 was released to mediocre sales and reviews.[14] It debuted at number three on the Billboard 200 before quickly falling down the charts, while most critics questioned Hill's discipline as an artist on the album.[2] In Entertainment Weekly, David Browne said it was "perhaps the most bizarre follow-up in the history of [popular music]", appreciating some of the music's "poetic flow" but finding it exhausting to hear Hill's "strummed sermons directed at unspecified enemies and soul crushers".[6] Alexis Petridis panned the record as "messy" and "inconsequential", mostly because of what he felt were her clichéd self-help lyrics and self-indulgent monologues: "A scant handful of powerful moments, including a furious meditation on the police shooting of a young black man, 'I Find It Hard to Say (Rebel)', are outweighed by repetitious rambling."[7] In The Village Voice, Robert Christgau called it one of the "worst albums ever released by an artist of substance", finding the songs overlong, verbose, and unmelodic. Christgau was also critical of Hill's singing voice, calling it typically poor, and "a solo guitar [she] can barely strum (the first finger-picked figure occurs on track 10, where it repeats dozens upon dozens of times, arghh)."[13]

Some critics appreciated MTV Unplugged No. 2.0 as a radical and bold change in direction by Hill.[2] In a positive review, AllMusic's William Ruhlmann conceded that Hill's spoken interludes sounded vain and foolish but still felt the album was "fascinating" as an "unfinished, unflinching presentation of ideas and of a person".[4] Q was more enthusiastic, finding her songs beautifully sincere and performed austerely in a way that recalled the vibrant quality of Bob Marley's "Redemption Song" (1980).[9]

"Mystery of Iniquity" was nominated at the 45th Grammy Awards for Best Female Rap Solo Performance.

Track listing

All tracks are written by Lauryn Hill, except "So Much Things To Say" written by Bob Marley.

Disc one
No.TitleLength
1."Intro"2:28
2."Mr. Intentional"6:58
3."Adam Lives in Theory"7:26
4."Interlude 1"1:55
5."Oh Jerusalem"8:54
6."Interlude 2"1:21
7."Freedom Time"4:59
8."Interlude 3"3:18
9."I Find It Hard To Say (Rebel)"6:50
10."Just Like Water"6:09
11."Interlude 4"1:41
12."Just Want You Around"4:36
13."I Gotta Find Peace of Mind"9:19
Disc two
No.TitleLength
1."Interlude 5"12:12
2."Mystery of Iniquity"5:11
3."Interlude 6"1:42
4."I Get Out"5:17
5."Interlude 7"0:20
6."I Remember"3:46
7."So Much Things To Say"5:59
8."The Conquering Lion"3:20
9."Outro"2:57
Total length:106:36

Notes

Charts
Chart (2002) Peak
positions
Billboard 200 (U.S.)[15] 3
Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums[16] 2
Top Canadian Albums[17] 9
French Albums (SNEP)[18] 4
Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria)[19] 2
Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)[20] 3
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[21] 30
Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)[22] 40
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders)[23] 34
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Wallonia)[24] 24
Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan)[25] 10
Norwegian Albums (VG-lista)[26] 5
Danish Albums (Hitlisten)[27] 28
Australian Albums (ARIA)[28] 16
New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)[29] 35

Certifications
Region Certification
Canada[30] Platinum
United States[31] Platinum

References
  1. "Picks and Pans Review: MTV Unplugged No. 2.0". People. 57 (18). May 13, 2002. Retrieved July 10, 2013.
  2. Hilburn, Robert (July 15, 2002). "Hill Continues Her Lofty Course". Retrieved July 10, 2013.
  3. Bauder, David (May 10, 2002). "The misstep of Lauryn Hill?". Associated Press. Retrieved July 10, 2013.
  4. Ruhlmann, William. Review: MTV Unplugged No. 2.0. Allmusic. Retrieved 2010-02-11.
  5. Larkin, Colin (2006). Encyclopedia of Popular Music (4th ed.). Muze. p. 290. ISBN 0195313739.
  6. Browne, David. Review: MTV Unplugged No. 2.0. Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 2010-02-11.
  7. Petridis, Alexis. Review: MTV Unplugged No. 2.0. The Guardian. Retrieved 2010-02-11.
  8. Needham, Alex. Review: MTV Unplugged No. 2.0. NME. Retrieved 2010-02-11.
  9. Q. London: 121. June 2002. ...Less is indeed more; performed so simply, each song has the resonance of Bob Marley's 'Redemption Song'...Hill's traditional songwriting values and strong roots in '70s soul music mean that a beautiful and heartfelt song requires nothing more than her gritty sweet voice and funky strumming...CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link)
  10. Rolling Stone: 78. May 23, 2002. ...An unpolished collection of thirteen demos sung and strummmed exclusively by the ex-Fugee....this tender renegade purposefully does what she's gotta do to keep her music sacred...CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link)
  11. Caramanica, Jon (2004). "Lauryn Hill". In Brackett, Nathan; Hoard, Christian (eds.). The Rolling Stone Album Guide (4th ed.). New York: Simon & Schuster. p. 379. ISBN 0-7432-0169-8.
  12. Cinquemani, Sal. Review: MTV Unplugged No. 2.0 Archived 2010-04-19 at the Wayback Machine. Slant magazine. Retrieved 2010-02-11.
  13. Christgau, Robert (April 22, 2003). "Not Hop, Stomp". The Village Voice. New York. Archived from the original on December 20, 2013. Retrieved February 9, 2013.
  14. Connor, Jackson (May 7, 2014). "Why You Should Give Lauryn Hill's "Unplugged" Album Another Chance". Complex. Retrieved August 15, 2015.
  15. "Billboard - Top 200 Albums". Billboard. Retrieved 2016-12-21 – via www.billboard.com.
  16. "R&B/Hip-Hop Albums". Billboard. Retrieved 2016-12-21.
  17. "Billboard Canadian Albums: Top Albums Chart". Billboard. Retrieved 2016-12-21.
  18. "Lescharts.com – Lauryn Hill – MTV UNPLUGGED NO. 2.0". Hung Medien. Retrieved June 16, 2013.
  19. "Austriancharts.at – Lauryn Hill – MTV UNPLUGGED NO. 2.0" (in German). Hung Medien. Retrieved June 16, 2013.
  20. "Swisscharts.com – Lauryn Hill – MTV UNPLUGGED NO. 2.0". Hung Medien. Retrieved June 16, 2013.
  21. "Longplay-Chartverfolgung at Musicline" (in German). Musicline.de. Phononet GmbH. Retrieved June 16, 2013.
  22. "Dutchcharts.nl – Lauryn Hill – MTV UNPLUGGED NO. 2.0" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved June 16, 2013.
  23. "Ultratop.be – Lauryn Hill – MTV UNPLUGGED NO. 2.0" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved June 16, 2013.
  24. "Ultratop.be – Lauryn Hill – MTV UNPLUGGED NO. 2.0" (in French). Hung Medien. Retrieved June 16, 2013.
  25. "Swedishcharts.com – Lauryn Hill – MTV UNPLUGGED NO. 2.0". Hung Medien. Retrieved June 16, 2013.
  26. "Norwegiancharts.com – Lauryn Hill – MTV UNPLUGGED NO. 2.0". Hung Medien. Retrieved June 16, 2013.
  27. "Danishcharts.dk – Lauryn Hill – MTV UNPLUGGED NO. 2.0". Hung Medien. Retrieved June 16, 2013.
  28. "Australiancharts.com – Lauryn Hill – MTV UNPLUGGED NO. 2.0". Hung Medien. Retrieved June 16, 2013.
  29. "Charts.nz – Lauryn Hill – MTV UNPLUGGED NO. 2.0". Hung Medien. Retrieved June 16, 2013.
  30. "CRIAA"
  31. United States Certifications The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill. riaa.com. Retrieved 2010-02-11.
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