When you’re a kid, before life really hits you in the nuts, there’s a bunch of things that can disappoint you in the small world you’ve created for yourself.
I felt, among other things, disappointment when I realized Biggie wasn’t going to be releasing any more new music.
Each year, when the Spurs or the Yankees or Bucs (everyone’s three favorite teams) would inevitably lose and see their seasons end, I’d feel disappointment.
Those were all upsetting, to varying degrees. But for me, neither compared to when The Fugees broke up.
Biggie and Tupac dying was sad, but I understood death. I mean, as a 9-10 year old I didn’t have a true grasp of what it really meant, but I got it enough to understand the finality of it.
With the sports teams, while each season’s end without a championship was crushing in its own way, you always knew they’d come back and try again next year. There wasn’t going to be a next season without the Yankees or Spurs. Bucs, maybe.
But when The Fugees broke up and stopped making music, not because someone had died or because of some other permanent reason, it really fucked me up. I couldn’t wrap my mind around the concept. If they’re all still alive, why aren’t they making music? The last album was so, so, so great. How could that be it? That can’t just be it. Can it? Fuck.
About 10 years ago, Pras said the following, making it pretty clear where things stood: “Before I work with Lauryn Hill again, you will have a better chance of seeing Osama Bin Laden and [George W.] Bush in Starbucks having a latte, discussing foreign policies, before there will be a Fugees reunion.”
So, I know now not to take any of the multitude of rumors of a return seriously… however, like anything we wish to be true despite the long odds, it’s really hard not to imagine. And in that vein, we have this feeling.
The idea of them reuniting for a new album, to put music out once and for all after this time, would be so damn fun. The music itself might be garbage but, fuck, if it wouldn’t be fun to hear an album filled with Lauryn Hill verses and Wyclef tracks again.
Just like anything else, the fact that it’s been denied of us for so long is what makes it so sweet.
Polar Opposite of this Feeling?: Knowing this will never happen. The Fugees aren’t fucking getting back together, Scott.
scott spinelli 