On this day in Hip Hop history, The Fugees released their debut LP Blunted on Reality. Coming only two years before their platinum selling hit album, The Score, Wyclef Jean, Lauryn Hill and Pras put out an 18 track boom bap classic. This high energy LP dealt a lot with the issues that members of the group and the African American community were facing across the country at the time of its release. The theme of the album is best described by Wyclef on his interview with Lorna’s Corner in 1990 where he describes the project’s title,
“…when the cop is messing around with somebody for something that the person didn’t do and they try to set ’em up, that makes me blunted on reality. When the government is taking money on arms…and that money could be going back to the community it makes me blunted on reality. It’s just awareness of what’s going on…that’s what blunted on reality means…it don’t mean that I smoke weed…cause I’m too paranoid as it is.”
This debut had a decent reaching the #62 spot on the Billboard Hip Hop-R&B Chart. It also had some international success claiming #122 on the UK albums chart. One of the album’s singles Nappy Heads peaked at #49 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and #172 on the UK singles chart. The other two singles, Vocab and Boof Baf did not make chart appearances.
