Throwback: The Fugees-Fu-Gee-La

The Fugees were in their moment when a song written for Spike Lee’s Clockers was transformed into “Fu-Gee-La.” The lead single from their sophomore album The Score was the first sign that things had changed for them because Blunted On Reality didn’t show attract the same notice. Producer Salaam Remi cleverly blended their reverence for reggae and the influence of their home base in New Jersey to craft the sound. Samples of Teena Marie’s “Ooo La La La” and Ramsey Lewis’s “If Loving You Is Wrong (I Don’t Want To Be Right)” and the Poor Righteous Teachers’ “Shakiyla (JRH)” was recycled into the profile of their seminal breakthrough song. The video was inspired by Jimmy Cliff’s movie The Harder They Come and was also shot in Jamaica. “Fu-Gee-La” was The Fugees’ announcing themselves and being noticed by the world. It was the beginning of the album’s greatness which would grow in recognition with “Killing Me Softly” and “Ready Or Not.” The Score would define greatness for the era and won Best Rap Album at The Grammys. The Fugees’ second album was their last as the members went solo but The Score’s pulse continues to be felt in pop music through artists like Kanye West and Doja Cat. In 2021, The Fugees announced a reunion tour to celebrate the 25th anniversary of The Score but the dates were postponed to 2022.

Media Questions Of The Week

How did the New York Daily News make the mistake of using a picture of late actor Clarence Williams III for a death notice about Melvin Van Pebbles?Â

Is there a chance The Fugees will be inspired to make new music now that they are going on tour for the first time in 15 years?Â

Pras’s New Group The Axixs

From “The Score” selling millions of records worldwide, ex-Fugee Pras Michel has come full circle to form a new group, The Axixs. With Pras, Selina Carrera, and Stef Nova joining forces with famed producer, Roy Hamilton III (Michael Jackson, Nas, Pleasure P, R. Kelly,Keri Hilson) who produced The Axixs entire project, they are ready to take let work be heard and felt worldwide. The Axixs’s brand new single Hipstar is now out for your visual enjoyment. The music video for Hipstar, directed by Dan Clifton, is hitting the web today and is available for free download at:The Axixs – “Hipstar” (video).

Hipstar – The AXIXS feat. Roy Hamilton III- Music Video from Roy Hamilton III on Vimeo.

Download “Hipstar” mp3 – here.

www.axixs.com

Pras Blogs On GlobalGrind.com:Counting my days until I go back to Somalia…

Counting my days until I go back to Somalia and to be honest I’m not sure how or what I feel. I was just there, as some of you might know, and I just barely dodged the bullet. So why do I go back and succumb to the mouth of hell? Why subject myself to such psychological, spiritual and physical torture? Am I a glutton for internal misery that would ultimately destroy every cell in my cerebral?

What I’ve come to realize while out there is that I think I found a voice through my twittering. How people really were concerned for my well being. I realize that I have this affinity with discovering something when I’m not quite sure what it is I’m searching for, besides a bunch of pirates. It’s the embrace of being massaged or being welcomed into the arms of death. It’s the unknown that isn’t quite tangible, but yet just within grasp, almost like trying to capture sand through one’s fingers.

I like dancing with the idea of being on the borderline of sanity and insanity; the idea that I think I know it all, but I’m so uncertain about my fate and what I am truly trying to accomplish. How dare I put myself in harms way with no regard to the ones who love and care for me? Am I so selfish and self-centered that I am blinded by my own egoistic, self-indulgent, self-promoting, self-conscious, empathetic mortal being? Do I really believe that I am destined to liberate the pirates by exposing their endless plight for a free world much less like the United States of America or will I be cursed by the Gods for such binding audacity? Be as it may, I leave in a couple of days for the concrete inferno, the abyss of disparity. The uncertainty that lies before this journey is the driving force that makes me want to conquer immortality.

Memoirs of Pras Michel