The Fugees dissolved in 1997 after the trio’s seminal album The Score had already gone 4x-platinum. The tension between Pras, Lauryn Hill and Wyclef Jean had become too toxic to ignore.
MC Pras, the mastermind behind the group, sat down for an interview with Hot 97’s Ebro In The Morning earlier this week and opened up about their relationship. He revealed why the Fugees will never reunite.
“I was on the Titanic when I was with the group,” he said. “I knew it was going to come to an end. When I formed the group, I knew it was volatile. So, I was always planning ahead, knowing this thing’s not really going to last.”
Pras also explained that reuniting with the group would be like “going down a rabbit hole.”
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“I don’t want no part of that,” he said. “Life is short. I done outgrew that band to be honest with you. I’m passed that moment. It was a great moment. I will never, ever not be grateful for that moment for both Wyclef and Lauryn. They’re the reason I’m here.
“But it’s too much. I’m a very, very pragmatic individual. Granted, sometimes we compromised our principles. I understood like, ‘Man, I gotta get out of the hood. This is my ticket outta the hood, so I’ve just got to deal with this situation.’ It was the most dysfunctional energy because one minute, you’re in love and shit feel good and the next minute, you ready to black out. That shit’s not good for your emotional state, man. It’s like you’re being torn, just emotionally.”
The final nail in the coffin came when the Fugees were offered $90 million for a 15-month run, and Wyclef and Hill refused to take the opportunity.
‘They were like, ‘Hmm. I don’t know,'” he explained. “I said, ‘Alright, it’s all good. You guys will never hear from me again pertaining to the Fugees.’ I want nothing of them. I’ll keep it real with you. Obviously, I am speaking both from a place of luxury and arrogance.
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“If I was broke and fucked up in the game, you wouldn’t have to give me $20 million, you just offer me $200,000 and it’s like, ‘Where do I show up?’ All three of us are speaking from that kind of place. Like, ‘He’s good, she’s good, I’m incredibly good.’ I understand the emotional but that’s when you gotta put on your big-girl drawls and your big-boy drawls. Times supposed to heal. This is 20 years, man. How long it going to take?”
Elsewhere in the interview, the topic turned to Robert Glasper’s controversial comments about Hill and the accusation that she didn’t write The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill. Pras admitted he didn’t know who Glasper was but knew what had happened.
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“This guy [Glasper], I don’t know who he is, but I’ve heard about the controversy,” he said. “I can tell you 1000 percent she wrote every single lyric on the album. That being said, we ain’t talking about production. That’s a whole different separate matter. As far as her lyrics, her melody …
“I think the way she went about it, she basically felt like, ‘Y’all are just work-for-hire.’ That’s where I think she made a mistake at. She could’ve alleviated all that by just giving you credit. To be able to say, ‘I co-produced Miseducation‘ verses ‘I’m some drum programmer,’ that’s a whole different playing field. It was just a matter of technically. Most definitely, she wrote every single part of that album. I think that dude was just hatin’.”
Toward the end of the interview, Pras announced he was working on an EP featuring artists such as Young M.A and fellow Haitian Zoey Dollaz.
Watch the full interview above. [apple_news_ad type=”any”]
