Pras urges artists in today’s climate to learn from this example. Here’s A Never Before Released Fugees Freestyle From 1995 That Settles The Score (Audio) I learned from that I don’t even like advances-on anything.” “Because the up-front money was so low, and the return was great. That also means that much of the album revenue went to the artists. So they made all their money.” While artists are subject to pay back the advance and other expenses, Pras implies that the Fugees were flush almost immediately. But by the third month, we were already at two million albums worldwide were at like six. “By the time they go to they release this album, maybe at a million. That’s nothing.” Putting most of the money into the album’s creation, they yielded a time-tested product on low overhead. On a second album, just to give you perspective-out of the $135,000, the three of us only walked away with $1,200, each. “The smartest thing we ever did: the advance we took was so minimal. However, Pras makes an interesting point about The Score. At that time, I was making sure we didn’t get played,” admits the artist who released two solo albums since. “At that time, I was ‘the businessman’ of the group. It was better than average,” he says, crediting a good team of lawyers and management. “I gotta be honest with you, the deal was pretty fair. While many artists later decry label tactics, Pras does not. As DJ Vlad presses Pras about an album that is estimated to rake in a third of a billion dollars, the MC says, “Math don’t lie.”ĭo Remember: The Fugees’ Vocab (Hip-Hop Remix) (Video) The proverbial heavens would propel The Score to do massive sales figures. “We didn’t even want to release that record. It was done it was a wrap.” Despite its crossover appeal, Pras’ maintains that the trio never intended the Roberta Flack cover to be a focal point. We eventually did, after ‘Killing Me Softly’ got leaked some radio station started playing it. “That’s the album we had to go beat to get #1 on Billboard. It just kept climbing and climbing.” The Fugees would eventually topple Alanis Morissette’s Jagged Little Pill (16-times-platinum) for the #1 spot.
The third week, it goes from 90,000 to 98,000. Pras recounts, “The second week, it goes from 70,000 to 90,000. Nelly’s Country Grammar Is The 9th Rap Album To Be Certified Diamond Still, executives warned Pras to be weary of the second-week sales drop-off of sales. “Fu-Gee-La” would be gold certified as a set-up single to the February 1996 LP. However, while The Fugees lacked the strong commercial success of early ’90s label-mates Cypress Hill and Kris Kross, he believed in The Score. “The first album, by the time, we had sold maybe 200 copies we sold nothing.” ” Despite Pras’ faith in The Fugees, he was aware that the group was up against a wall. I was just livin’ at Booga Basement, crashin’. “I went out on a limb to do the first homeless I was basically homeless.
They need to go back on they boat.'” Pras said that while his parents relocated from Jersey to Florida, he passed on college, and stayed to to be with his band-mates. But at the same time, we were gettin’ killed. Pras, who has been the quietest member of The Fugees in the 2010s, opened up about his personal status approaching that album. We just built a studio and basically produced our whole album-except for two songs.”įugees Producer Salaam Remi Explains How They Went From Underground MCs To Global Superstars But we had to build our studio and make our own record, ’cause $135,ooo-even back then, wasn’t a lot of money. “We wanted to be consistent and capture some of that magic, which-he ended up giving us a fuckin’ incredible record ‘Fu-Gee-La.’ Diamond D, who was a hot producer at that time-but more like some ‘Hip-Hop’ type of vibe, like a Premier type of producer. Obviously, we got Salaam, ’cause Salaam was the one who did the remix for ‘Nappy Heads.’” Salaam spoke with Ambrosia For Heads at length in early 2016, chronicling his period with The Fugees between 19. “We actually only got two outside producers that could fit within our budget. “We because we didn’t have the money to go and get producers at that time,” says Pras of the studio in the cellar of an East Orange, New Jersey residence. Claimed to be a smaller budget than their debut, the group was forced to rely on themselves to record, produce, and engineer much of The Score. “Yeah, we got $135,000,” Pras confirms, regarding the reported money Ruffhouse/Columbia/Sony Records gave the Garden State trio to make their second LP.