Fugees

The Fugees' breakout sophomore album, The Score, propelled them to multiplatinum, worldwide superstar status. Wyclef, Lauryn Hill, and Pras all get nice on the mic, flexing lyrical over an array of eclectic, multidimensional beats. Features the hugely successful singles "Fu-Gee-La," "Ready Or Not," and "Killing Me Softly With His Song."

The Fugees are a Neapolitan treat, sweet in three layers: rhyme, sample and groove. On its
second album, the hip-hop threesome cops a grim veneer but escapes gangsta clichés by
playing around with the formulas. Witticisms like singer and rapper Lauryn "L" Hill's
description of a mean lover -- "He tried to burn me like a perm" -- or rapper and guitarist
Clef's mix of sermonizing and wigging out between songs don't so much lighten T... More >

They got black humanism, gender equality, and somebody to eclipse Duke Bootee in the Columbia alumni magazine. They sample "I Only Have Eyes for You" from before they were born, misprise "Killing Me Softly" like it was the Rosetta stone, emerge unscathed from the both-sides-of-gangsta trap, and aren't so nervous about being followed they won't leave landmarks on their soundscape. And astonishingly, they're not just selling to a core audience--this is one of the rare hip hop albums to debut high and rise from there. So you bet they're alternative--they'd better be in a subculture backed into defiant self-pity by rabid reactionaries, lying ex-liberals, and media moguls suddenly conscience-stricken over the nutritional content of what they always considered swill. Forget their debut, from before they discovered the gender-equality formula in which one girl learning equals two guys calling the shots. Forget the Roots, Aceyalone, Pharcyde. This isn't another terrible thing to waste. It's so beautiful and funny its courage could make you weep. (Grade - A)