Please Unplug The Mic, PLEASE!

By
SwitchBlade
– 2002/05/08Posted in: tunes
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music reviews

lauryn hill - mtv unplugged coverAlbum: MTV UNplugged No. 2.0 presents Lauryn Hill

Artist(s): Lauryn Hill

Official Drop Date: July 21, 2001

Blades: -5

Review: This is a combination of the televised concert and the album.

Sweet God, what the hell is going on? Is it April Fool’s 2.0 and no one told me? I didn’t even know we delayed April Fool’s Days existed. Jeeze. Well, MTV got me good. One day I turned on the television and saw a commercial blast on the screen about Lauryn Hill performing during an UNplug show. I was a bit skeptical because Ms. Hill hasn’t performed much and the personal news/gossip mills were working overtime. So much so that most of it sounded unreal… until the show kicked off into full gear.

Well, all rumors were either confirmed, put to rest or new ones were created the moment the show began. Ms. Hill began by talking to the audience and explaining why she no longer “dresses up” for them and how those days are gone. But dang we didn’t even deserve a do-rag-less Hill appearance? Thanks… :huh: Then she says that she no longer considers herself a performer. (After the show I can attest to that.)

Instead of singing she was very preachy and wanted us to “feel” her and what she went through. Yeah, yeah, yeah I want the music. Write a book if you want to spill out your soul, I’m watching MTV for music. Am I wrong here – I say no.

Then she’s smacking on a dang cough drop and all up in the mic. :wtf: Lawd, could this not have been preempted by a presidential speech or some news clip of a cat stuck in a well?? Yes, a bunch of title-less songs which is cool since this is UNplugged and most songs performed by artists are on a whim. I can deal with that.

What was hysterical was how she said she “retired from fantasy” yet she still refers to Mr. Rohan Marley as her husband – yet I digress. Back to the performance & music. Can I just add that I hope it was a free performance in the MTV studios because to pay would have been a crime. Either way I really didn’t care for much of her music from that night.

Her third song speaks of adultery for a split second. Was this towards herself and Marley. Having children out of wedlock while his wife was chilling in Miami, FL? All songs were played with the same catchy, plucking of guitar strings. Ms. Hill gets down to asking questions of humanity and where we seemed to have left ourselves but like with most flawed preachers, the congregation is to listen and not question what’s behind the curtain.

Lauryn wasn’t even in the public eye that long for her to feel trapped, was she? I mean she was in the Fugees but they didn’t seem like a group that was “materialistic”. The music that they laid out usually seemed to have some type of message but maybe I was listening too hard.

Anyway, the raspy sounding Hill kept talking about being a “prisoner” in hotel rooms while telling her children that she needed to sleep to rest her voice so that she wouldn’t sound “raspy”. Either way if you sound like shit no amount of sleep is going to help. Most of her stories left me wondering why I didn’t change the channel yet but like most would say; it was hard to look away from the accident. So while she rocked the boy-child look she strummed her way into her fourth song which also included a rap. Yip-eee, what joy.

Apparently unlike her audience I was not too ready to applaud at every other “profound” lyric she spat on the stage. By the end of this song I wanted freedom from the song and the singer. She kept speaking of “the enemy” and I was wondering who the hell she was talking about. Now not everything that came out of her mouth was a joke but I guess for me the fact that come from her made it funny. Funny “ha-ha” and funny “oh-no”.

She kept thinking that her words were so deep that if she put out an album then people would have taken the words lyrically but dang – it’s not that serious. All this during the Amadou Diallo NY Shootout with a wallet. Hill seems to misunderstand that when the press calls her unstable it’s because she does & says off the wall shit. Yes, a lot of people do the same and they too are unstable. If you bang your head on the wall you’re frustrated but if you continue to bang your head on the wall no matter what, then maybe you need help.

Of course there were the choir members in the audience to give the “all right” and ” mm-hmm” throughout the performance. Then Hill kept going back to not needing validation or a “crew” to be listening to “the enemy”…. Dang, what they hell is being smoked up in that Marley cabin? She keeps confirming to us that she’s a mess. Thank you. We needed that – NOT. Then the “translation” of the Gospel every now and then. Kept talking about being a “prisoner”. Lawd, wah-wah-wah… My passion was to finally see the end of this mess on stage.

Talking about how her and family went to Disney and realized that, while taking a tour of the grounds, it really wasn’t that great… DUH Lauryn, more than half of us already knew that – where the hell were you? No one smiles that damn hard naturally without indulging in strong drugs!!!

Back to her and Rohan (only because she kept bringing him up). How is she saying that she and Rohan were in a relationship of truth when reports claimed a marriage existed between him and another woman in Florida? For the love of the Most High this is the main reason why this show is quickly evolving into something ridiculous. If you want to live with a man then so be it, but why the pretenses? Just let it go.

Speaking of letting go – someone’s voice was letting go. Can you guess who that was? Yep, Ms. Hill. As she reached her all screeching limit, the show began to seriously go downhill. How you ask, well it seems that there was more room for it to flop and it did.

Sooo, at the end of the day it was a total waste of an event while going through repetitive moments and crappy music and a sense that MTV was serious about this performance. Oh well, chock it up to a learning experience. Next time I’ll watch the recap clips online and get the gist of it all.

I believe The Bootlegger’s Chronicles is owed some blades for putting up with this mess. We’ll say -5 blades go to you. You are pretty much out there at this point, and we need to reserve the blades for those who should truly ‘fend off critics. Did I mention Hot Mess?!

blades: ☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

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