Post by Filip on Nov 22, 2005 23:51:52 GMT 1
Yo guys,remember this one?
Fugee fever. (interview with Lauryn Hill, Pras Michel and Wyclef Jean by Roberta Flack)(Interview)
Author/s: Roberta Flack
Issue: May, 1996
These happening hip-hoppers are settling scores and emptying record stores with their hit album, The Score. And their news-making cover of "Killing Me Softly With His Song" is a big part of the story. Here the Fugees are interviewed by singer, songwriter, teacher, radio host, and philanthropist Roberta Flack, whose legendary voice made the original a pop staple
Music may already be moving at an exhausting pace, but thanks to their megaselling second album, The Score (Ruffhouse/Columbia), the Fugees are toying with the time/space continuum in a way that is pushing hip-hop forward to the next level and the next century. Lauryn "L" Hill, Prakazrel "Pras" Michel, and Wyclef "Clef" Jean, are the "Refugees" who seem to have found a homeland at the top of the charts by translating their considerable lyrical brawn into complex, modern storyboards. Described by the New Jersey-based band as a high-concept sonic movie - a "hip-hop Tommy" - The Score also features one of the most exciting covers in years, a version of Roberta Flack's gorgeous landmark tune "Killing Me Softly With His Song." And part of The Score's scoring ability seems to lie in the deft choice of this poignant track. Since covers have become an art form all their own, we decided to ask originator and interpreter to get together and jump the gorge of time. Here, Flack herself, the singer whose own rendition of "Killing Me Softly" won three Grammy awards in 1974, caught up with two thirds of the Fugees, Lauryn and Clef, by telephone in New York City as the group was making frantic preparations to go on tour. Proving that common spirits are not bounded by age and place, this "chat room" swung.
ROBERTA FLACK: Well congratulations! [screams] The Score is, what, number three on the charts? I'm so happy for you!
LAURYN HILL: How'd you like the record?
RF: I love it.
WYCLEF JEAN: Thank you.
RF: The stuff I've read by folks who are writing, I'm not sure they know what they're saying, or why they're saying it, but I do agree that your music is different from what everybody else has done out here. And it's great because you're so young. Can I ask your ages?
LH: I'm twenty.
RF: [laughing] Oh, I hate you and I hate your age.
LH: Pras, who's not here right now, is twenty-three.
WJ: And I'm the old man. I'm twenty-six.
RF: You guys are gonna be so rich by the time you're thirty. [WJ laughs] So I have a million questions, and if any of them get boring, just say, "We don't want to answer that." 'Cause, as you know, interviewing is not my usual thing. I want to ask you about your first album, Blunted on Reality [1993].
LH: We were a lot younger when we did that album. It's basically our demo tape, you know? I was, like, sixteen and Clef was, like, twenty-one. We was babies. But, you know, when you're young and you wanna get on, you give up some of your creativity to the people who have the money to make things happen. So a lot of our sound was, in fact, intertwined with the sound of the production company. It wasn't necessarily us, raw.
continued ...
Fugee fever. (interview with Lauryn Hill, Pras Michel and Wyclef Jean by Roberta Flack)(Interview)
Author/s: Roberta Flack
Issue: May, 1996
These happening hip-hoppers are settling scores and emptying record stores with their hit album, The Score. And their news-making cover of "Killing Me Softly With His Song" is a big part of the story. Here the Fugees are interviewed by singer, songwriter, teacher, radio host, and philanthropist Roberta Flack, whose legendary voice made the original a pop staple
Music may already be moving at an exhausting pace, but thanks to their megaselling second album, The Score (Ruffhouse/Columbia), the Fugees are toying with the time/space continuum in a way that is pushing hip-hop forward to the next level and the next century. Lauryn "L" Hill, Prakazrel "Pras" Michel, and Wyclef "Clef" Jean, are the "Refugees" who seem to have found a homeland at the top of the charts by translating their considerable lyrical brawn into complex, modern storyboards. Described by the New Jersey-based band as a high-concept sonic movie - a "hip-hop Tommy" - The Score also features one of the most exciting covers in years, a version of Roberta Flack's gorgeous landmark tune "Killing Me Softly With His Song." And part of The Score's scoring ability seems to lie in the deft choice of this poignant track. Since covers have become an art form all their own, we decided to ask originator and interpreter to get together and jump the gorge of time. Here, Flack herself, the singer whose own rendition of "Killing Me Softly" won three Grammy awards in 1974, caught up with two thirds of the Fugees, Lauryn and Clef, by telephone in New York City as the group was making frantic preparations to go on tour. Proving that common spirits are not bounded by age and place, this "chat room" swung.
ROBERTA FLACK: Well congratulations! [screams] The Score is, what, number three on the charts? I'm so happy for you!
LAURYN HILL: How'd you like the record?
RF: I love it.
WYCLEF JEAN: Thank you.
RF: The stuff I've read by folks who are writing, I'm not sure they know what they're saying, or why they're saying it, but I do agree that your music is different from what everybody else has done out here. And it's great because you're so young. Can I ask your ages?
LH: I'm twenty.
RF: [laughing] Oh, I hate you and I hate your age.
LH: Pras, who's not here right now, is twenty-three.
WJ: And I'm the old man. I'm twenty-six.
RF: You guys are gonna be so rich by the time you're thirty. [WJ laughs] So I have a million questions, and if any of them get boring, just say, "We don't want to answer that." 'Cause, as you know, interviewing is not my usual thing. I want to ask you about your first album, Blunted on Reality [1993].
LH: We were a lot younger when we did that album. It's basically our demo tape, you know? I was, like, sixteen and Clef was, like, twenty-one. We was babies. But, you know, when you're young and you wanna get on, you give up some of your creativity to the people who have the money to make things happen. So a lot of our sound was, in fact, intertwined with the sound of the production company. It wasn't necessarily us, raw.
continued ...
