Fugees: The Score (2LP) [RUFFHOUSE/COLUMBIA]

Why you'll love it

The Score won the Grammy for Best Rap Album and has sold more than 22 million copies. "Killing Me Softly," "Ready or Not" and "Fu-Gee-La" are radio staples to this day, and the album closes with the trio's take on Bob Marley's "No Woman, No Cry."

This edition

• 2LP set, 13 tracks over four sides
• Ruffhouse / Columbia pressing

About the album

The Fugees never made another record after 1996's The Score, but maybe that's just because they knew they couldn't top it.

Lauryn Hill might have with her subsequent solo album The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill, true, but that's a topic of discussion for another day. Right now we're talkin' The Score, and it's a pretty righteous piece of work in its own right. The soulful chemistry that bubbled up when Hill, Wyclef Jean and Pras Michel got together in the studio was utterly unique, and that magic was enough to lure the masses to a record that didn't sound like anything else in hip-hop at the time and didn't bother making concessions to mainstream pop tastes because it didn't have to: it was simply too good to ignore. The Score has sold more than 22 million copies worldwide over the past three decades, and the singles "Ready Or Not," "Fu-Gee-La" and "Killing Me Softly" (a bold cover that the Fugees kinda own to this day) remain radio staples. Not sure if they were planning to make their exit after this one, but it's a damn fine way to go out.

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

Tracklist

Listen

On Ruffhouse / Columbia, a reissue of the 1996 album.