It’s 30 years this year since The Score, The Fugees' multi-platinum album, and they've never followed it up. But now two thirds of the group – Wyclef Jean and Lauryn Hill – have given the strongest indication yet that they might one day record new material together.
Interviewed by the BBC yesterday, the pair responded to a question about the possibility of a new album positively. “Will there be music in the future?”, Jean restated, with Hill responding: “Absolutely”.
Jean then added: "All I can tell you is, man, we're in God's hands,” before singing: “I’m back with my bandmate!
"So we're in an amazing place,” he said. “I think the energy is very important."
Hill agreed, adding: “There was an incredible healing process that happened with us as a band and as bandmates, and as you said we just want to showcase that and give some of that energy to the world as well.”
The pair were interviewed ahead of Diaspora Calling!, a UK festival that Hill has co-organised that takes place today (7 August) at Milton Keynes Bowl. Hill and Jean are performing together on a bill that also includes Erykah Badu, Giggs and Zion and YG Marley, the latter being the grandchildren of Bob.
Whether the third Fugee would be a part of any reunion of the group is doubtful. Pras Michel sued Hill for fraud in 2024, claiming that the band’s comeback tour that year was “sabotaged” by Hill’s “arrogance” and “narcissistic tendencies”.
Hill refuted Michel’s allegations and, in any case, that dispute was overtaken by events when Michel was found guilty of involvement in a Malaysian money laundering scheme, as well as further counts of witness tampering, illegal lobbying and lying to banks. He was eventually sentenced to 14 years in prison earlier this year.
But even before then, in the fall out over the 2024 tour, Michel announced that he and The Fugees were effectively finished, telling Variety that “I’m done with that.”
The three piece have to date only released two studio albums. The second of those, 1996’s The Score, is one of the biggest selling LPs of all time, currently standing at sales of 22 million. But almost immediately after, the three members diversified into solo projects. Aside from Rumble In The Jungle, a 1997 single from the When We Were Kings soundtrack, and an online-only single in 2005 to promote a greatest hits package, they have released nothing since.
