Although Lauryn Hill was compared to Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder after her release of the Grammy winning the Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, her sophomore album didn't receive those same reviews. In her first album, she spoke of lost loves, and the heartbreak that brought her to that loss, and she spoke of the joy of her first born, attracting an audience of all ages, and from different genres of music. It was a mix of soulful lyrics, and hip-hop beats. Her audience waited three years before she released MTV Unplugged 2.0, and when it dropped, it didn't climb up the charts, and in fact it climbed nowhere. On The Miseducation, she was the medium between a hardcore rapper and a soulful singer, but in her second album, she rambled on about how she was inside a human shell, not being the person she really is. In fact her second album can make you feel she has a newfound proclamation as a prophet. Lauryn's sophomore album, did not mesh well with the persona she had built for her public as an artist, leaving critics and her audience somewhat confused.
From talking about lost loves and their heartbreak in her first album, Lauryn shifted to a more spiritual vibe in her sophomore album. The song "Ex-Factor, is a perfect example of her talking about the confusion love causes. She sings, "It could all be so simple but you"d rather make it hard/ Loving you is like a battle and we"ll both end up with scars." Here she shows her emotional instability, and how much in love she is with this person. Most songs in The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, deal with her coping with a love gone wrong. Her lyrics in the first album, allow her audience to feel her pain through the heart of a tough, street wise woman, and as a young, sweet, passionate woman. This type of album appealed to all types of music fans. On MTV Unplugged, the lyrical flow was much different, now she spoke of inner peace, and self-discovery.