In 1996, Pras, Lauryn Hill and Wyclef Jean emerged from their New Jersey basement as unlikely conquering superstars, serving as both the culmination of various ’90s trends and a stark contrast to several others. As sophomore album The Score sold millions of copies, dominated MTV and radio and topped the Billboard 200 for a month, each of the rap trio was prepped for solo stardom — or at least solo hits — in the years to come. But the Fugees never properly reconvened, as personal drama and diverging agendas split the group later in the decade, and made it near-impossible for them to reunite in the years that followed.
On this Vintage Pop Stardom episode of the Greatest Pop Stars podcast, we dive deep on one of the great single-year sensations in hip-hop crossover history with the Fugees’ Score-settling year of 1996. Host Andrew Unterberger is joined by Billboard Hip-Hop‘s Angel Diaz — also a New Jersey native — to remember a very different time in rap music, where genre-blending, gender-mixed rap groups consisting of multiple dynamic personalities could make the jump from the streets to the suburbs with an album that played more like a movie, and with an equally cinematic backstory to match.
Along the way, we cover all the most pressing questions about the ’96 Fugees: Does Lauryn’s solo brilliance unfairly overshadow the group’s impact at this point? Has Wyclef (or Pras) become underrated? Did the group ultimately get cast as hip-hop for suburban white kids — and did it deserve to be? How did “Killing Me Softly” transcend its cover status to become an era-defining classic? Would the Fugees get in a lot more trouble for the “Chinese Restaurant” skit today? Is there any way we can get million-dollar budgets for MTV videos like “Ready or Not” back? And perhaps most importantly: How much did we miss out not ever getting a third Fugees album?
Check it out above, along with a YouTube playlist of the Fugees’ biggest 1996 moments — all of which are discussed in the episode — and subscribe to the Greatest Pop Stars podcast on Apple Music or Spotify (or wherever you get your podcasts) for weekly discussions every Thursday about all things related to pop stardom!
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The post “The Fugees’ 1996: Does It Get Remembered as an All-Time Great Rap & Pop Year? Greatest Pop Stars Podcast” by Andrew Unterberger was published on 07/16/2026 by www.billboard.com