Ready or not, in 1996 the Fugees dropped The Score and scored an opus masterpiece that achieved massive commercial and crossover success and is now considered a classic album.

The trio of Lauryn Hill, Wyclef Jean and Pras Michel formed in the late 1980’s in South Orange, New Jersey. However, the Fugees are not a story of local kids gone worldly; rather through upbringing, musical alchemy and perhaps sheer divine intervention, the Fugees had already internalized a world of music by the time they changed their name from Tranzlator Crew to Fugees.

Their debut album Blunted on Reality scored a cadre of hits with offbeat and quirky hip-hop-reggae instrumentation and vocals with tracks like “Vocab” which has a bump-along guitar-based vibe that melds old school Jamaican chatting with the vocal gymnastics of American hip-hop emcees. The ‘Bootleg Versions’ were a series of remixed album singles released alongside Blunted on Reality, some of which achieved greater popularity than the original album cuts.

The Score regurgitated classic doo-wop, soul, R&B and reggae into a contemporary album that was a pivotal player in the evolution of a new breed of hip-hop and neo-soul, a musical amalgam that has carried over into the 21^st century influencing artists like Tom Misch and Jorja Smith, a testament to the album’s lasting legacy.