Details
Track Listing
1. Red Intro
2. How Many Mics
3. Ready or Not
4. Zealots
5. Beast, The
6. Fu-Gee-La
7. Family Business
8. Killing Me Softly With His Song
9. Score, The
10. Mask, The
11. Cowboys
12. No Woman, No Cry
13. Manifest/Outro
14. Fu-Gee-La - (Refugee Camp remix)
15. Fu-Gee-La - (Sly & Robbie mix)
Album Notes
Fugees (Refugee Camp): Lauryn Hill, Prakazrel "Pras," Wyclef.
Additional personnel includes: Garfield "Gus" Parkinson , Rah Digga,
Forte, Omega, Red Alert, Ras Baraka (spoken vocals); Handel Tucker (keyboards); Robbie Shakespeare (bass); Sly Dunbar (drums, programming);
John Forte (programming); DJ Skribble, Backspin (vinyl scratches).
Producers include: Wyclef, Shawn King, Lauryn Hill, Salaam Remi, John Forte.
Engineers include: Warren Riker, Gary "Mon" Noble, Wyclef.
Recorded at Booga Basement, East Orange, New Jersey; The Crib, Quad, New York, New York; Anchor Studios, Kingston, Jamaica.
Samples include "Ready Or Not, Here I Come" (Hart/Bell), "Ooh La La La" (as performed by Teena Marie) and "I Only Have Eyes For You" (Warren Dubin).
THE SCORE won the 1997 Grammy Award for Best Rap Album, and "Killing Me Softly" won a 1997 Grammy for Best R&B Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocal. The album was also nominated for Album Of The Year.
On their second album, the Fugees utilize a couple of the mid-'90s trends in hip-hop--cinematic construct and references to Asian fighting techniques. But THE SCORE transcends much of the genre's recent output, because it's as much about musicality as it is about beats. In fact, deep beats often take a back seat to tense, noir grooves. More importantly, all three rappers--Haitian males, Wyclef and Pras, and New Jerseyite female, Lauryn Hill--swing hard, syncopating around the beats like jazz instrumentalists, making THE SCORE a complex and challenging listen.
THE SCORE also boasts some of the most intelligent, non-exclusionary rhymes in recent memory. Wyclef claims to "run through Crown Heights/Screaming out Mazel Tov" and Hill draws parallels between herself and both Nina Simone and Elliot Ness. Too politically astute and musically talented to fall into the ruts of rap cliches and dependence on overused samples, the Fugees are placing a significant, personalized stamp on the direction of hip-hop.
Industry Reviews
Ranked #10 on Rolling Stone's list of the Ten Best Albums of 1996.
Rolling Stone (01/23/1997)
Ranked #2 on Spin's list of the 20 Best Albums Of '96.
Spin (01/01/1997)
Ranked #2 in the Village Voice's 1996 Pazz & Jop Critics' Poll.
Village Voice (02/25/1997)
3 Stars (out of 5) - The Fugees are a Neapolitan treat, sweet in three layers: rhyme, sample, and groove...the hip-hop threesome cops a grim veneer but escapes gangsta cliches by playing around with the formulas...
Rolling Stone (03/21/1996)
9 (out of 10) - ...[A] sense of organic interaction is the hallmark of this album....the album's most important factor...is its beats--chest-shaking, obscure-texture-having, freestyle-friendly beats...
Spin (03/01/1996)
4 Stars (out of 5) - ...an impressively panoramic soundscape, mixed into a 13-track seameless whole...
Q (04/01/1996)
...showcases their acrobatic lyrical technique and restless intelligence. And unlike much East Coast rap, THE SCORE feels warm and intimate--partly because the instruments are live but also because the Fugees sound so relaxed and casual. - Rating: A
Entertainment Weekly (02/16/1996)
Ranked #21 in NME's 1996 critics' poll.
Included in Vibe's 100 Essential Albums of the 20th Century
Vibe (12/01/1999)
Included in Q Magazine's 90 Best Albums Of The 1990s.
Q (12/01/1999)
...showcases their acrobatic lyrical technique and restless intelligence. And unlike much East Coast rap, THE SCORE feels warm and intimate--partly because the instruments are live but also because the Fugees sound so relaxed and casual. - Rating: A
Entertainment Weekly (02/16/1996)
8 (out of 10) - ...THE SCORE...effectively incorporates the energy of a hype stage show to wax....the Fugees have succeeded in creating one of the most innovative rap albums in recent memory. Don't sleep.
Rap Pages (03/01/1996)
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