“We made hip hop global,” she said, noting the band’s “complicated history” and long breaks that she had taken from making music (apart from an “Unplugged” album and a handful of singles and features, “Miseducation” is the extent of her discography).
“We’re still cooking it,” Hill - who is notorious for starting her concerts late - explained to the crowd of the brief, seven-song preview performance, before acknowledging both the group’s impact and its rocky past.
On Pier 17’s Roof, there were no solo albums or personal squabbles to consider: Just the trio and their large ensemble (13 horns, to say nothing of three background singers and a propulsive core band) prepping for the tour, “Diaspora Calling,” which starts in Chicago on November 2, and ending in Ghana on December 18. The album went on to sell an estimated seven million copies globally - at the peak of the lucrative CD era - but the group soon splintered acrimoniously, leaving its members to launch solo careers, particularly Hill with her even more successful 1998 debut “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill.” That’s not to downplay the impact of the performance: “The Score” was a defining cultural moment, a bold album that shifted hip-hop’s perspective from the street into something mainstream yet edgy, sophisticated and global, with a particular reach-out to its members’ Caribbean heritage. Although rumors about a Fugees reunion tour had been bubbling for days before it was actually announced on Tuesday, the news still made a splash: a multi-date international tour celebrating the 25th anniversary of the group’s galvanizing 1996 album “The Score” would be starting in a matter of weeks (see dates here), and would be officially introduced the next night at a pop-up show in New York at a location to be announced.Īnd indeed, the group - Lauryn Hill, Wyclef Jean and Pras Michel - and a big backing band did perform at the Roof at Pier 17 in a New York at a show staged in partnership with Global Citizen Live, although the 3,500+ attendees had to wait for some three-and-a-half-hours past the show’s scheduled start time to hear just a few songs.
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