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Be warned that while there are some very beautiful songs on this album, it is definitely a rap/hip-hop album and you can expect a lot of interesting beats and rhymes.I still listen to this album on a regular basis. A true tragedy, but sometimes life takes people in other directions. I heard this album for the first time about 10 years ago, and even then, it had been around for a while. Everytime I do it reminds me of the fact that Lauryn has more or less stopped producing music. Wyclef still puts out some good music every once and while, but it's hard to imagine an album like this ever happening again. I'm not a fan of long reviews, but I will say that this is a classic hip-hop album. You will hear Lauryn, Praz, and Wyclef lay down some of their best tracks.If you liked either Lauryn or Wyclef's solo albums you should check this album out.
I will chalk it up to a bad experience and never use this seller again. My credit card was charged promtly however I still have not received the CD. I bought 3 other CD's from other sellers that day and received all within a week.
It all sounds really cool too. And the entrancing rhymes continue in songs such as "Fu-Gee-La," where Lauryn Hill raps, "Ha Ha Ha Ha, You shouldn't diss refugees and/Ha Ha Ha Ha, You whole sound set's bootie." This is one of the few albums where the low-key beats and rhymes just correspond so well with each other that the resulting sound is astounding.Of course, Lauryn Hill's rendition of "Killing Me Softly With His Song" might be the spotlight of the entire album, making it an excellent album opposing the ghettoization of African-Americans. At first, the concept album about Haitian refugees acting as Italian mobsters is somewhat weird.
Along the way, the Fugees aren't afraid to diss mafioso rap groups either. There's more than a few awesome intimate solo singing performances by Lauryn Hill and Wyclef Jean.Finally, Pras did a good job collaborating with a diverse range of rappers in the song "Cowboys." Some of the awesome rhymers include Pacewon, Rah Digga, who was rapping with Busta Rhymes in the Flipmode Squad, and Young Zee from The Outsiders. In the intro to "Fu-Gee-La," Wyclef and Pras play out a hilarious skit involving a Chinese restaurant, where the restaurant owner goes kung-fu on the Fugees.The low key, bass-oriented vibe in this album is so entrancing that nobody can resist it.
Although the Fugees as a group didn't hang together as long as the Wu-Tang Clan, no one can doubt that their rap style and obscure samples in "The Score" are like no other rap group's.From the beginning, Wyclef lays down a monologue which would make mob actor Marlon Brando proud. Lauryn Hill lays down awesome rhymes and sings an awesome chorus line in "Ready or Not." And there's nothing cooler than Praz's rhyme at the end, where he says, "With my crew from lock high I refugee from Guantanamo Bay/Dance around the border like I'm Cassius Clay." Of course, not even Praz could have predicted that America would hold prisoners in Guantanamo Bay, but nonetheless, the entire flow is just so entrancing.All throughout the album is a cool, spacelike world of paranoia and frustration within the lives of the African-American mafioso character. All in all, they rock the house with freestyles on blazing guns, blazing in their saddles and, ahem, drug blazing.While I did get a little tired of hearing the two remixes of "Fu-Gee-La," I still love this album, which distinctly blends the Fu-Gee-La raps of Wyclef, Lauryn Hill and Praz with the Italian vibe of "The Godfather." It's more melodic than a Wu-Tang Clan album could ever be, and it has so much more soul than any other rap album out there.
However, the Fugees are referring more to their African American "family" of lower class gangsters. The song "Family Business" has an Italian guitar to set the mood of a New York world of mafiosos, where the Fugees rap about the dangers of drug hustling and gangster life.The Fugees' freestyle raps are clearly top-notch as well.
My favorite track is number 4, Zealots. She truly breaks it down in terms of her style and the way she sees the world. I had this cd previously but it got misplaced. That is one of Lauryn Hill's best raps ever. Killing Me Softly, Fugee La and Ready or Not are also on this cd, which garnered them heavy acclaim. Me wanting to even purchase another one should tell you what I think of it but I'm going to put it in laymen's terms. This is one of my all-time favorite cds.
Too bad hip-hop/rap music isn't like this anymore. Hell, one of the best albums around OVERALL. Forever a classic. One of the best hip-hop albums around.
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