It didn't come as any surprise to those who'd heard the Fugees' first album that the trio should've finally shot to world-wide fame on the back of Lauryn Hill's inspired cover of Roberta Flack's "Killing Me Softly" (from The Score). For their debut album, Blunted On Reality, is a microcosm of the previous 25 years of black music: from the dancehall rhythms of Jamaica, through the early 70s funk of Sly Stone and George Clinton, to the angry hip hop beats of America in the 1990s. On tracks like the biting "Nappy Heads" and "Recharge", Pras, Wyclef Jean and Hill proved that you didn't have to live up to some stereotype of gangsta rap to create music which is as powerful, chilling and relevant as any around. One to file alongside The Roots and The Goats' Tricks Of The Shade. -- Everett True