The Score - Revisited
February 20th, 2004
Blame it on the new iPod which has me importing a relatively sizable CD collection and visiting old music with fresh ears all over again. It’s further proof to me that Apple’s niche is lifestyle, not really computers per se, but that’s another discussion entirely.
In my hearkening back to music’s yesteryear, one album that simply refuses to lose its luster for me is The Score by the short-lived yet stil dynamic Fugees. Like the successful vertebrae transplant Dr. Howard Dean gave to the Democratic Party, I’ve just gotta give credit where credit is due. The Fugee’s dropped a bomb in 1996. The album gave the relatively peacenik Fugees’ hip-hop credibility at a time when gangsta rap was all the rage. It also made them a household name seemingly overnight, seeing to several big hits including the voluble Killing Me Softly. But if retrospect does anything, it has to prove this album was more than a lucky break for the three talented street prophets. It’s a classic all right, if not an ageless wonder to behold.
Fast forward ahead nearly ten years and the music sounds as if it were written for today—beat for beat, lyric by lyric. True, the multicultural overtones have mostly been polarized since Republicans took control of the White House, but the the no-nonsense smartness in both intellect and artistry still pleads a very strong and relevant case for today. Lauryn Hill hits it early in the jazzy How Many Mics.
“Seasons change, mad things rearrange. But it all stays the same like the love Doctor Strange.”
Haiti, Iraq, urban disintegration… how did it all come full circle? Thankfully, the Fugess don’t have to lose any credibility (ahem reunion album cough) to find out. They were postulating today’s issues with thick pulsating beats way back in the day—and I might add with a creativity, style, and soulfellness that has long since gone unmatched in hip-hop.
No doubt, they not only knew the score a long time ago, they settled it.