The Fugees



Famous hip-hop trio from The Nineties. The members of the group are rapper/singer/producer Wyclef Jean, rapper/singer/producer Lauryn Hill and rapper Pras Michel.

The group is known for jump-starting alternative hip-hop into the mainstream. Before The Fugees, most alternative hip-hop artists usually stayed in the underground. Now it's hard to get away from the scene, as roughly 50 percent of hip-hop heard on the radio is alternative.

Their first album, Blunted In Reality, is rarely acknowledged, and when it is it's just considered So Okay It's Average. The album became an old shame for them after they released The Score in 1996. The album was critically praised and is considered a classic. Notable on the album was "Killing Me Softly", which was a Roberta Flack cover, arguably done better than the original.

After the album, the group split up to for a series of solo careers: Lauryn Hill has had the most successful, winning Grammys, releasing the album The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill (which later became a source of controversy when Hill was revealed to have not written most of the album's music), while Wyclef has had a semi-successful solo career, gaining acclaim for his debut solo album The Carnival and subsequently scoring top 5 hits with Carlos Santana, Destiny's Child and Shakira.

Unfortunately for the group, it was later revealed that Wyclef and Lauryn Hill had been on-again, off-again lovers and that during production of Hill's solo album the two had a nasty falling out that derailed any chances for a full-time reunion (though the trio have done some one-off shows). While Wyclef and Pras continue to record, Hill has become a Reclusive Artist.

This musical trio provides examples of:

 * Album Filler: The Score has filler moments after each song. Most of it still worth listening to, since it is pretty humorous.
 * Cover Version: Roberta Flack's "Killing Me Softly" and Bob Marley's "No Woman No Cry".
 * Garfunkel: Pras.
 * Sampled Up: "Ready or Not" contains a sample from an Enya song. She was going to sue them, but dropped the lawsuit after finding out that they weren't a Gangsta Rap group.
 * Signature Song: "Ready or Not".