This album sounded Old Testament old, as if it could have been the soundtrack for the Jews when they left Egypt, led by Moses and pursued by a vengeful Pharaoh. I was long used to listening to artists who invoked the spirit of previous eras, such as Jay-Z and the Wu-Tang Clan, but the utterly haunting chords and drums on The Score sounded like they had been recorded at the dawn of time. One notable thing about that track and the rest of their seminal second LP, The Score, was that it sounded old. From the opening notes of that song, which would become the anthem of the rest of my youth, I was convinced: This group is about to release classic art. It reminded me immediately of the journey that my own family had taken, having fled a dictatorship in Uganda in the 1970s to resettle in England. It is not often that you encounter music that you know will change the world, but when I first heard “Fu-Gee-La” by the Fugees-sitting in my bedroom at an English boarding school, a 16-year-old listening to late-night radio-I knew what was coming. It’s the natural law that the refugees bring.” It’s the way that we rock when we’re doing our thing. Today, we’re exploring the impact of The Fugees’ The Score.
FUGEES THE SCORE VIDEO SERIES
The 1996 Rap Yearbook, a recurring series from The Ringer, will explore the landmark releases and moments from a quarter-century ago that redefined how we think of the genre. No year in hip-hop history sticks out quite like 1996: It marked the height of the East Coast–West Coast feud, the debut of several artists who would rule the next few decades, and the last moment before battle lines between “mainstream” and “underground” were fully drawn.
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