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Throwback Classic: The Fugees - The Score
Article by:
Alexis Jeffries
 The day I heard “Killing Me Softly” by The Fugees, I was sitting in an elementary school classroom probably doing counting cheerios for a math project or painting my fingernails with scented markers. Nonetheless, my life was never the same that day that my father bought The Fugees’ The Score (Sony, 1996) and played it for me in the car. Having a father that was a radio DJ helped broaden my musical palette, and it certainly helped to make my love for hip hop one of the most prevalent forces in my life. That day, as I ate my cheerios in the car, The Fugees soothed me…they changed me.
Despite that fact that The Score was the multi-platinum selling album that officially placed in The Fugees in the “credible hip-hop” category, I felt like I knew what they were saying. Now, clearly, I was 10 or 11 when the album dropped in February of 1996, and the likelihood that I understood anything about their political insinuations on Bob Marley’s “No Woman, No Cry” or about their questioning of hard-core, thug hip hop mentalities and violent imagery of the state of hip hop throughout the album was, well….slim to none. But that album spoke to me even before I knew what they were speaking of. With the dark-yet-melodic vocals of Lauryn Hill’s voice on “Ready or Not”, I realized that hip hop was a force in music that wasn’t going anywhere. It had crossed boundaries that many thought it would never do: women became MCs, R&B blended with hip hop so fluidly as though it was its second home, and there was flexibility in lyricism, where MCs could talk about anything from hood life to money to why and how Bill Clinton was really a black man deep down inside.
With The Score, The Fugees managed to create a completely different genre of hip hop. They created the co-ed/Rap-R&B/Reggae-inflected/hardcore rap group that made groups like the Wu-Tang Clan and A Tribe Called Quest shutter in envy. They had sex-appeal (thanks to Lauryn, of course), and they had a flow that wasn’t reminiscent of anyone else. They were unique….and that’s why I loved them.
Not to mention, The Score produced the instant classic “Fu-gee-la”, which had hip hop heads everywhere wondering how these three cats from New Jersey and New York (by way of Haiti) respectively, could have taken so long to bless the game with their flamboyant style and hypnotic flow. “Fu-gee-la” was the perfect combination of R&B, hip hop, and flawless delivery of rhymes that hip hop had been waiting for. And, no one can tell me that Lauryn Hill’s flow wasn’t smooth. Nobody.
Albums like The Score paved the way for rap groups like co-ed hip hop/pop group The Black Eye Peas, and it gave them something to strive for. The Score got them instant success and everlasting respect that, truth be told, hasn’t dwindled to this day. Now, with the re-emergence of The Fugees and the new album Take It Easy, myself (and my father included) are ready for what this incredible rap group has to offer once again. It was from The Fugees and The Score that I learned about good lyricism, smooth delivery, classically-hot beats, and the reason why hip hop is amazing; because there are no limits.
So, if I could get that day back when my dad was driving around blasting “Killing Me Softly” from his car stereo as I ate cheerios and let the passenger-side seat swallow me, I’d be thankful for that moment, because for me….that moment was the birth of hip hop.
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