On one level, it signals that “Killing Me Softly” is now just another catchy, ready-made groove–a fact demonstrated by the response it generates in concert.īut on another level, the cover is a tongue-in-cheek celebration of the group’s misappropriation of the title metaphor. Fugee Lauryn Hill closely follows Flack’s serene phrasing, aching tone, and overall gentility, but her passivity is undermined by a goofy sitar sample, a funky hip-hop rhythm track, and some rowdy joshing from her male crew members.
Yet the Fugees have supplied a brand-new generation of radio listeners with brand-new uses for the song. Her masochistic portrayal of an adoring, helpless female fan was so enervated it even managed to creep out a third-grader like me. After all, Roberta Flack already died a thousand soft deaths with her huge hit in the winter of 1972-’73. Omnipresence inevitably leads to backlash, and “Killing Me Softly” is no exception. If you’re a casual pop consumer you may not have heard the crew’s two official singles, “Fu-Gee-La” and “Ready or Not,” but you couldn’t escape the covers of Bob Marley’s “No Woman No Cry” and Roberta Flack’s “Killing Me Softly” if you lived in Greenland. All over the radio, the Fugees are inescapable. The buzz started with hard-core rap fans, but it has been sustained by devotees of nearly everything else. Out on the street, this apparent contradiction is only reinforced by the group’s ability to breach markets normally considered mutually exclusive. Rap magazines give the Fugees props for standing tough and taking on the problems of the street with fresh ideas and hard skills, while mainstream giants from Time to the New York Times praise them for leaving behind the gangsta poses that signal “the street” to most outsiders. The group has sustained this amazing success through an equally amazing achievement: being all things to all people.
#The fugees the score full#
In its second week, the album zoomed into Billboard’s top five on both the pop and R & B charts as we pass through the second full month of summer, it has slipped to number six in R & B but hasn’t budged in pop. Half a year ago, the Fugees were an obscure hip-hop trio from New Jersey with a two-year-old debut album that had gone almost nowhere and a perpetually budding reputation among hip-hop heads for great live shows that included “real instruments.” Then, on the second Tuesday in February, Columbia/Ruffhouse Records released the group’s second album, The Score.
#The fugees the score series#
Sommelier Series (paid sponsored content).Yeah, the Chinese restaurant skit is a little dicey, but on the whole, The Score balances intelligence and accessibility with an easy assurance, and ranks as one of the most distinctive hip-hop albums of its era.Donate now! I'm not interested right now. Their protest tracks are often biting, yet tempered with pathos and humanity, whether they're attacking racial profiling among police ("The Beast"), the insecurity behind violent posturing ("Cowboys"), or the inability of many black people in the Western Hemisphere to trace their familial roots ("Family Business"). Even when they're not relying on easily recognizable tunes, their original material is powered by a raft of indelible hooks, especially the great "Fu-Gee-La" there are also touches of blues and gospel, and the recognizable samples range from doo wop to Enya. Their strong fondness for smooth soul and reggae is underscored by the two hit covers given slight hip-hop makeovers ( Roberta Flack's "Killing Me Softly With His Song" and Bob Marley's "No Woman, No Cry").
Not just a collection of individual talents, the Fugees' three MCs all share a crackling chemistry and a wide-ranging taste in music. It not only catapulted the Fugees into stardom, but also launched the productive solo careers of Wyclef Jean and Lauryn Hill, the latter of whom already ranks as one of the top female MCs of all time based on her work here. The Score's eclecticism, social consciousness, and pop smarts drew millions of latent hip-hop listeners back into the fold, showing just how much the music had grown up. Its left-field, multi-platinum success proved there was a substantial untapped audience with an appreciation for rap music but little interest in thug life.
A breath of fresh air in the gangsta-dominated mid-'90s, the Fugees' breakthrough album, The Score, marked the beginning of a resurgence in alternative hip-hop.