Fugees: Blunted On Reality [RUFFHOUSE / COLUMBIA]

Why you'll love it

This reissue comes pressed in the EU with a download code. It's the first chapter of the Fugees story, with the singles "Nappy Heads," "Vocab" and "Boof Baf" and an early look at Lauryn Hill's voice and pen.

This edition

• Download card included
• Pressed in the EU

About the album

Every great band has a before picture, and this is the Fugees' one. Lauryn Hill, Wyclef Jean and Pras Michel wrote and recorded Blunted On Reality across 1992 and 1993 at the House of Music in West Orange, New Jersey, and Ruffhouse put it out in January 1994, two years ahead of the album that made them household names.

The sound is rawer and jumpier than what came next, all New Jersey boom bap, reggae toasting and Haitian pride, stitched together with skits and interludes. "Nappy Heads" was the hit, reaching No. 49 on the Billboard Hot 100, and its loose, joyful energy still jumps out of the speakers. "Vocab" strips things down to acoustic guitar and three voices trading lines, a clear sketch of the harmonies to come, while "Refugees On The Mic" and "Some Seek Stardom" let Hill show she could out-rap almost anyone in the room. Wyclef later explained the title as simply being wide awake to injustice.

The album went silver in the UK and has kept selling for three decades as fans work backwards from The Score. Think of it as the band's rehearsal tape, if the rehearsal tape had been rather good.

Also at Kops: more Fugees on vinyl · browse Hip Hop / R&B

Tracklist

Listen

On Ruffhouse / Columbia (cat# 19075851181), a reissue of the 1994 album.