The Fugees are undoubtedly one of the most famous hip-hop groups of the ’90s. Despite an all-too short career in which they released two groundbreaking albums, The Fugees’ members, Wyclef Jean, Lauryn Hill, and Pras, have all had successful solo careers and seem to show no signs of fully reuniting. However, a DJ in the US managed to get a hold of an unreleased track by the group, one of the first bits of ‘new’ music we’ve heard from the band in over a decade.
As XXL Mag reports, US radio host Funkmaster Flex managed to get a hold of a supposedly new track by the band, and played it on his radio show. As XXL Mag point out, the song features no dated aspects of production, making it sound like a song that could have been recorded at almost any point over the last 25 years. An audio-rip of the song’s premiere has been uploaded online, and if you can deal with Funkmaster Flex’s repeated hype-raising interjections of “New Fugees, Lauryn Hill, Wyclef, and Pras,” it’s actually not too bad.
While some fans were delighted at the prospect of new material being released by the group, the Fugees’ Ms. Lauryn Hill took to Twitter to let fans down by telling them this ‘new’ track, was actually an old track. “Hello Folks,” she begins. “The ‘new’ Fugees song is indeed an old track played around with back in the day in the lab. Not sure who leaked it, but I have my suspicions.”
— Ms. Lauryn Hill (@MsLaurynHill) July 16, 2017
Wyclef Jean also took to his Twitter account to clear up any confusion about it being a new track by the group. “To all my fugees fans,” he began. “The song leaked today is an old one from past studio days. I don’t endorse it in anyway and had no clue it was coming.”
To all my fugees fans, the song leaked today is a old one from past studio days.I don’t endorse it in anyway and had no clue it was coming.
— Wyclef Jean (@wyclef) July 16, 2017
So while it doesn’t seem like the group are getting the band back together and releasing new music any time soon, some questions are raised, namely questions about where this unreleased track came from, and who leaked it. So if you’re a hip-hop fan, it looks like you’ll have to revert back to your well-worn copy of The Score for the time being.
Check out The Fugees’ classic ‘Killing Me Softly’ below.
