Everyone’s good pal Blake Hammond is still busy with graduating from college, so this is David Broermann again filling in for him. This week I decided to go outside my comfrot zones. I reviewd “ICarly” over on my television review (not my kind of thing) and now this punk rock listener is takling some hip-hop. Here we go F.A.N., hope you enjoy.
A group that contains some of hip hop’s biggest stars, The Fugees, for the lack of a better pun, scored big with their sophomore release in 1996. The Score(Sony Music) ended up being the number 58 best-selling album of the 90s, with three hit singles that permeated popular culture and airwaves, the most notable being “ Killing me Softly” which reached the second spot on the Top Billboard Hits list. The name Wyclef Jean is very recognizable in the music world. Lauryn Hill ended up being a successful solo artist. The third member, Pras, is probably best known for his hit single “Ghetto Superstar” that came out in 1999. All three of these people reached their elite statuses with this group and album. As a retrospective review, the accolades this album collected make it clear it was very popular and influential, but how does the album really stack up?
Big Bird thinks so
The album starts off with “Red Intro.” As happens a few times throughout, this is more of a rant than a song. With humorous lyrics mixed into political and racially charged messages, the intro sets the tone for the songs to follow. The third track in is the first radio single, “Ready or Not” and it starts off showing exactly why Lauryn Hill not only deserved her success, but why she deserved even more. She should be considered one of the elite female R&B performers of all time. She starts off this song displaying her vocal talents, setting the tone with her hybrid of singing and rapping. Following a verse by Wyclef, she then displays another one of her assets. No more singing, she lets loose with what sets her apart from most females in this genre, a capability to rap as well as her male counterparts. She also acts well.
She at least looks happy to be around Whoopi Goldberg
“The Score” keeps a basic layout to most of the songs. Wyclef leads off with the first verse, followed by Lauryn, then mix in a few choruses and Pras takes the song home with his deeper voice and more commanding presence. “The Beast” follows this lineup, while throwing in jabs at political figures, police and throwing in a little levity on top of the serious message at the end playing out a scene of a fight in a Chinese restaurant between two young black men and a racist Asian man.
A constant in hip hop, The Fugees use a myriad of samples in their music. Only five tracks out of 17 contain all original material. That is not a detriment though, as they take this material and add their own spin, improving upon it, and making it their own creation. The artists sampled are a wide range of styles, from the Moody Blues to Bob Marley; the Fugees wrap their influences into their songs masterfully. The sample that garnered the most success though is from Roberta Flack, from a song sharing a title, “Killing Me Softly.” This song was far and away the most successful the Fugees released. It is a great radio single, but actually disrupts the flow of the album drastically. The album consists of very mellow hip hop, with biting lyrics about politics and racial tension. Their rendition of “Killing Me Softly” strays from this motif. It is mellow, but contains virtually no rapping. It just has Lauryn Hill singing. While she has a nice voice, it seems to have been created solely for radio play. Track 12 is a cover of Bob Marley’s “No Woman, No Cry.” Covering Bob Marley is hackneyed now, and at the time it does not seem all that original. They do the song justice, but it is well worn territory. The Fugees’ message of racial tolerance and the black community making strides fits Marley’s messages, but this song does not really broach these subjects and again takes the rhythm out of the flow toward the end of the album.
Not relavent, just applicable.
“The Score” deserves the praise it receives. It deserved the money and fame it brought the members of the group. Is it perfect? No. Some would argue that is what makes hip hop what it is; a mishmash of freestyles, mistakes, great lyrics and ideas. On the surface, this is a low level release, designed to just be on in the background of a relaxed environment. If paid attention to though, it becomes clear there is a lot more. The album contains a mix of tributes to the past, allusions to the injustice the black community is forced to endure, along with the drug use that is rampant in theses circles, and jabs at political figures of the day. If judged on lyrical merits as well as chart success, this album could be considered a masterpiece. According to artists who gain influence from it and the sheer amount of money it made, there is no question, it is a masterpiece.
Credit goes to: Wikipedia.org, RCA.com, Youtube.com and aol.com