Lauryn Noelle Hill is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, and record producer. She is regarded as one of the greatest rappers of all time, as well as one of the most influential musicians of her generation. Hill is credited for breaking barriers for female rappers, popularizing melodic rapping and for bringing hip hop and neo soul to popular music. She was the frontwoman of the Fugees and her 1998 solo album The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill is one of the best-selling albums of all time. Hill has won many accolades, including eight Grammy Awards, the most for a female rapper to this day.
Fugees is an American hip hop group formed in 1990 in South Orange, New Jersey. Deriving its name from a shortening of the word "refugees", the group consists of Wyclef Jean, Pras Michel, and Lauryn Hill. The group rose to prominence in the mid-1990s for their pioneering blend of reggae, R&B, funk and hip hop, which eschewed gangsta rap and made them one of the most significant alternative hip hop acts. They occasionally rapped in Haitian Creole, and were one of the first hip hop bands to incorporate live instrumentation during their performances, along with The Roots.
Nel Ust Wyclef Jean is a Haitian musician, rapper, singer, and actor. At the age of nine, Jean immigrated to the United States with his family. He first achieved fame as a founding member, co-producer and guitarist of the New Jersey hip hop trio The Fugees, alongside Lauryn Hill and Pras Michel. The group released the albums Blunted on Reality (1994) and The Score (1996), the latter becoming one of the best-selling albums of all time. Jean would follow this with the release of his first solo studio album, Wyclef Jean Presents The Carnival (1997), which contains the top ten hit "Gone till November".
Prakazrel Samuel Michel, known professionally as Pras, is an American rapper and actor. He is best known as a member of the hip hop group Fugees, alongside Wyclef Jean and Lauryn Hill. After the Fugees, he earned two Top 40 hits on the Billboard Hot 100, the Grammy-nominated song "Ghetto Supastar " featuring Ol' Dirty Bastard and Mýa from the film Bulworth, and "Avenues" with Refugee Camp All-Stars and Ky-Mani Marley. He also collaborated with Jean and rock band Queen on the 1998 remix of "Another One Bites the Dust", which reached the top five on the UK Singles Chart. In 2017, he won a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Digital Daytime Drama Series, as a producer on the web series The Bay.
The Score is the second and final studio album by the hip hop trio Fugees. The Score was released worldwide on February 13, 1996, on Columbia Records. The album features a wide range of samples and instrumentation, with many aspects of alternative hip hop that would come to dominate the hip-hop music scene in the mid- to late 1990s. Primarily, The Score's production was handled by the Fugees themselves, Jerry Duplessis and Warren Riker, with additional production from Salaam Remi, John Forté, Diamond D, and Shawn King. The album's guest verses are from Outsidaz members Rah Digga, Young Zee, and Pacewon, as well as John Forté, and Diamond D. Most versions of the album feature four bonus tracks, including three remixes of "Fu-Gee-La", and a short acoustic Wyclef Jean solo track entitled "Mista Mista".
"No Woman, No Cry" is a reggae song by Bob Marley and the Wailers. The song was recorded in 1974 and released on the studio album Natty Dread.
"Killing Me Softly with His Song" is a song composed by Charles Fox with lyrics by Norman Gimbel. The lyrics were written in collaboration with Lori Lieberman after she was inspired by a Don McLean performance in late 1971. Denied writing credit by Fox and Gimbel, Lieberman released her version of the song in 1972, but it did not chart. The song has been covered by many other artists.
Killing Me Softly is a studio album by American singer-songwriter Roberta Flack, released on August 1, 1973, by Atlantic Records. She recorded the album with producer Joel Dorn for 18 months. The album was dedicated to Rahsaan Roland Kirk.
Blunted on Reality is the debut studio album released by the American hip-hop group Fugees. The album was released in February 1994 through the Ruffhouse Records label. Three singles were released from the album, including ”Boof Baf”, ”Nappy Heads” and ”Vocab”.
Bootleg Versions is a remix album released by R&B and Reggae Fusion group The Fugees. The album was released on November 26, 1996. The album features only eight tracks, including seven remixes, and one new recording. The album along with their previous album, The Score, was later re-issued in 2001, as a double album, "The Complete Score" and in 2011, the two albums along with their first, Blunted on Reality was released as a 3-CD box set, "Original Album Classics". The album peaked at #127 on the Billboard 200 in the United States.
Charles Ira Fox is an American composer for film and television. His compositions include the sunshine pop musical backgrounds which accompanied every episode of the 1970s ABC-TV show Love, American Style; the theme song for the late 1970s ABC series The Love Boat; and the dramatic theme music to ABC's Wide World of Sports and the original Monday Night Football; as well as the Grammy-winning hit song "Killing Me Softly with His Song", written in collaboration with Lori Lieberman and Fox's longtime writing partner, Norman Gimbel.
"Fu-Gee-La" is a song by American hip-hop trio, Fugees, released on December 13, 1995, as the lead single from their second and final album, The Score (1996). Produced by Salaam Remi, it contains a sample of "If Loving You Is Wrong " by Ramsey Lewis, while its chorus contains an interpolation of "Ooo La La La" by Teena Marie. Immediately following this is a sample of "Shakiyla (JRH)" by the Poor Righteous Teachers.
"Ready or Not" is a song by American hip-hop group Fugees, from their second studio album, The Score (1996). The song contains a sample of "Boadicea" (1987) by Irish singer Enya, and its chorus is based on "Ready or Not Here I Come " by the Delfonics.
Jerry "Wonda" Duplessis is a Haitian music producer, film score composer, entrepreneur and philanthropist. His first major success was as a producer for the Fugees' 1996 album The Score. He also played the bass guitar with the Fugees, and group member Wyclef Jean is his cousin.
"We Trying to Stay Alive" is the first single released from Wyclef Jean's debut solo album, The Carnival. The song features raps by John Forté and Pras and samples the 1977 Bee Gees hit "Stayin' Alive" and Audio Two's "Top Billin'" (1987). The video version also contains an interpolation of the main melody of "Trans-Europe Express" by "Kraftwerk". In the US, it reached number 45 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Additionally, it reached number three on the Hot Rap Songs chart and number 14 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. The track reached number 87 on VH1's "100 Greatest Hip-Hop Songs of All Time".
Greatest Remix Hits is a 2006 remix album and DVD compilation by 2 Unlimited, a Eurodance project founded in 1991 by Belgian producers Jean-Paul DeCoster and Phil Wilde and fronted by Dutch rapper Ray Slijngaard and Dutch vocalist Anita Doth.
Greatest Hits Remixes is a 2001 album by 2 Unlimited, a Eurodance project founded in 1991 by Belgian producers Jean-Paul DeCoster and Phil Wilde and fronted by Dutch rapper Ray Slijngaard and Dutch vocalist Anita Doth.
The discography of the Fugees, an American hip hop trio consisting of rapper/singer Lauryn Hill and rappers Pras Michel and Wyclef Jean, consists of two studio albums, three compilation albums, one remix album and nine singles and nine music videos. After the group formed in the 1980s under the name Tranzlator Crew, they signed to Ruffhouse Records and Columbia Records in 1993; they then changed their name to Fugees – an abbreviation of "refugees", also a reference to Haitian immigrants.
"Nappy Heads" is a song written and performed by American hip-hop group Fugees, released in February 1994 as the second single from the group's debut album, Blunted on Reality (1994). The original version of the song was co-produced by Pras and Wyclef Jean, and written by Lauryn Hill. "Nappy Heads" was recorded at House of Music Studios in New Jersey. However, the more-well known, definitive remix version was produced by Salaam Remi. The song became the group's first entry on the US Billboard Hot 100, peaking at number 49. The song also reached #1 on the Billboard dance chart.
Fresh Hits 96 is a compilation album released in 1996. As a part of the Hits compilation series, it contains UK hit singles from the first half of 1996. The album reached number 2 on the UK compilations chart.
