TRAINWRECKORDS: "MTV Unplugged No. 2.0" by Lauryn Hill

It's actually kinda cool that this has become a Patreon exclusive

This was a hard episode to watch. Not because of Todd, he did a great job looking at the album, its just he is right, this album is torture to listen to. Its like when MST3K would do a movie so terrible that they barely saved it like Red Zone Cuba. Kudos to Todd, great video, Lauryn Hill Unplugged is just so hard to watch and listen to lol.

Jane Elwood Strawberry

The people still paying for concert tickets thing - that reminds me of a doc I watched about Nina Simone - and I know there are other parallels as well - but specifically, towards the end of Simone's career. Simone had concerts a lot like the ones you describe with Hill - chaotic messes, no shows, no singing, lecturing, etc. But when she was on her game, she was incredible. If you're a big fan, you're probably always hoping for the best, but expecting the worst. If you got the winning ticket, though, it might make all the other bad performances worth suffering through.

Megan Johnson

Count me among the people that became a patron after seeing all the problems getting this video on youtube. I've watched your videos so long, I figured, fuck it, it was about time. And it's nice to see a take on Lauryn Hill that's both sympathetic but also not totally bullshitting her, either.

Shiny Skunk

I'm glad I became a Patreon not just to watch this after your struggles with Youtube but because you are one of my favorite people on the platform so helping you out felt right. Great video.

If Eminem'd career woulf have been completely fone after Encore I feel that could've been the only trainwreckord that ever got close to this one.

This has to be the worst Trainwrecord so far. Of the Trainwrecords I have seen and recall off the top of my head, tend to be experiments in a different genre (Jewell) or doing things differently than they had been doing when they got famous (Van Halen) or doing something bigger and betterer (Styx). The only one that comes close to Lauryn Hill's intentional career suicide is CCR, where John Fogerty let the guys in the band write the songs without his involvement. ("You guys think songwriting is easy? Well, you're on your own for the next album. Call me when you're ready to record in the studio.")

Steve

"Ma'am, this is an Arby's" made me literally LOL. But I agree. If I walked into a coffee shop and heard/saw this, I'd get my latte elsewhere.

Steve

It's... certainly possible

Todd in the Shadows

Thank you!!

Todd in the Shadows

I've been toying with becoming a patron for a while, but I wanted to see this badly enough to officially make the leap. You do realize that you're going to have to get around to the Chris Gaines album at some point, right?

Kristopher Bluth

Been watching you struggle trying to get this one up on YouTube so I came over here and backed you.

Melinda

the german mtv once made an album with a german pop rapper named cro. He was very succesful in the early 2010s. he made fun oarty songs and was very popular among the teens and young adults. than he made his mtv unplugged album. itbwas nothing like his other stuff, it congained romance songs, soul records and not a single rap song. And it was not only his most succesful record but also his best. And it was the only time ever mtv unplugged made something i appreciated.

Another great Trainwreckord video you got us!!! How about talking about neither the Carpetners' "Passage" or Karen Carpetner's solo album, which destroyed their career!!!

Korn Unplugged isn't... Well, it isn't good, but it's kind of interesting? I like it more than I'd care to admit.

What I'm taking away from this? I need to check out Tambourine and Korn Unplugged...

James Anthony

Great video, Todd. You shouldn't feel bad for covering it though. You are not doing it for laughs or being cruel but as a showcase for how bad a career can really turn, at least that's how I see it. Keep it up, greets from Germany :-)

K0r0n1s

I actually like Korn unplugged lol

Andi

Any plans to do more Trainwreckords or OHW requests later??

I liked and respected Lauryn Hill a lot, but I never knew what happened to her. I almost wish it had stayed that way. I suffer from several mental issues myself (won't list the full cocktail here), but at least I'm honest about them and I don't try to justify my mental state as the "sane" one, or as "reality." It's MY reality, sure, but I'm under no illusions that other people see the world differently than I so, and that's OK, healthy even. Lauryn... Honestly, when her voice works, it's brilliant, breathtaking. Easily on a par with some of the modern greats. And you could put together a good song out of the raw, unvarnished pain she is clearly undergoing throughout this performance. But that's just it...one song, <b>maybe</b> two or even three if you've got a knack for songwriting. I can't help but wonder what this concert would have been like if it had taken place even a week later, with Lauryn's voice rested and her having had time to work on her songs and maybe get more of them finished. It might not have saved the album, but it would have been a step in the right direction. I just want this poor woman to get some help and get better, new album or no. I hope she does.

Curt Clark

God this sounds painful

Nowhere Girl

I hadn't heard of Lauryn Hill before this, before my time and not my usual genre, but from watching this video I come away feeling more sympathy than anything else. I have no intention to look up this Unplugged but I do hope she finds a more stable and happy sort of mind.

AstarothLuLz

Boo, Youtube. :P

Nigel G

Good luck with the content id troubles

Raymond

Every time she talked about reality I just heard Mr Peanutbutter saying "Oh, you want to get into things? Let's get into things! Let's get REAL! Everybody, BoJack wants to get REAL! Cancel the bubble round, because we're getting REAL! Things are getting REAL out here! REALLY REAL! REALLY REALLY REALLY REAL!"

The Dopefish

To be fair, in Lauryn Hill's case, I feel a lot more pity than scorn, since the pressures of fame and acclaim clearly wrecked her creative mindset and emotional stability, but there's no way I'm going to pretend Unplugged 2.0 is superior to Miseducation just because she didn't get help from studio producers and it wasn't marketed to produce a #1 hit. I think the people who appreciate the live album do so primarily due to context. They empathize with Hill's broken frustration with reality, which is, let's be real, plagued by superficiality, and so the record's tedium actually gels with their futile attempts at prayer, which sadly still haven't come to fruition for them, just as they never did for Lauryn herself. All that said, really you can attach a dark, complex narrative to just about any record, polished or uncut, so the only true reason people take Unplugged 2.0 seriously is because Miseducation exists. Without such a high preceding it, it's basically just another amateur record without the coherent effort needed to stand on its own. Because it followed The Score and Miseducation, however, it plays out as a sort of tragedy, much like how Taylor Swift's "Look What You Made Me Do" was also a confused, incoherent, delusional song made by somebody who was basically going insane due to the incessant scrutiny she had to cope with day after day.

Jacqueline Sailer

Thank you so much for pointing out every reason MTV Unplugged isn't any more "real" than full-studio songs! The excuses Lauryn makes throughout this concert sound exactly like the type of things pop-haters say to prop up unpolished music as the only kind of legitimate art, regardless of how dull, choppy, mushy, or self-indulgent it actually is.

Jacqueline Sailer

Good episode as usual, although I have to say I personally quite like Korn's MTV Unplugged album...

Katherine Jennings

Oof. Never listened to anything other than Miseducation. This was... kind of painful, yeah. Your takes on it were pretty informative, though, and I’m glad I didn’t have to sit through the full thing (especially the breakdown).

FarShootingStar

Hey now, Tamborine was an awesome special

LifeIsStrange

God I wish Fallout Boy had stayed dead, I think they did kill their career all over again with Mania though. I wouldn't seeing an episode on St Anger though, everyone thought Metallica was finished after that crapfest.

LifeIsStrange

Probably my favourite Trainwreckords video yet :)

The single time I have paid money for a LH performance, she actually showed up and was good albeit short (Flow Festival 2018 in Helsinki). This album, however, was execrable and I have the greatest sympathy for your poor ears.

Cristina Youngren

Hey now. "Layla" is good in any form, Unplugged, live, or studio.

Josh Spicer

Ugh Lauryn Hill is basically the female version of Axl Rose at this point, I don't know anyone would spend money on one of her shows these days, you might as well set that money on fire. I started losing respect for her when she made excuses for why she shouldn't have to pay takes, i'm like "girl did you not see what happened to Wesley Snipes? What makes you think you can get away with not paying taxes?"

LifeIsStrange

Just out of curiosity, would you ever do a Trainwreckords episode for a disaster album that appeared to be a career-killer, but that the artist then came back from? For example, Folie a Deux by Fall Out Boy, Encore by Eminem.

Gordon Stearns

Out of curiosity, would you ever do a Trainwreckords episode for a disaster album that appeared to. E

Gordon Stearns

Loved it