Lauryn Hill and Wyclef Jean Confirm New Fugees Music Is Coming: "Absolutely"
Lauryn Hill and Wyclef Jean reunited onstage at Diaspora Calling! festival at Milton Keynes National Bowl in the UK on Friday, August 7, 2026. Asked by the BBC about new Fugees music, Hill answered with a single word: "Absolutely." Jean added: "We're back with each other, and that energy is really important."
Who else played Diaspora Calling!
Hill headlined and helped organize the festival, with Wyclef Jean joining her on the same bill. Also on the lineup: Erykah Badu, UK rapper Giggs, and Hill's children YG Marley and Zion Marley — who are also grandchildren of reggae icon Bob Marley.
In the BBC interview, after Jean repeated the question about new music, Hill confirmed it plainly. Jean said the pair are in "a really beautiful place," while Hill spoke of an "incredible healing process" among the group's members and said she hopes to bring that energy to the world.
The Fugees: a split, legal battles, and a slow repair
The Fugees — Hill, Wyclef Jean, and Pras Michel — released two studio albums in the 1990s, 1994's Blunted On Reality and the classic 1996 record The Score, before splitting in 1997. They have not released another album since.
The group briefly reunited from 2004 to 2006, and again in 2021 for a tour marking The Score's 25th anniversary. But shows were abruptly cancelled just before a planned 2024 US tour, after which Pras filed a fraud lawsuit against Hill, alleging she sabotaged the tour and padded the budget with "unnecessary and possibly fictitious expenses." Hill's camp called the allegations "baseless" and countered that Pras had taken a $3 million advance (roughly NT$96 million) and never repaid the loan.
In April 2023, Pras Michel was convicted in connection with a billion-dollar Malaysian money-laundering case and was later sentenced to 14 years in prison, declaring a clean break from The Fugees. Hill and Jean have continued to collaborate since — appearing together at a 2025 memorial tribute for Roberta Flack, with Jean joining Hill onstage in the UK the same year to perform Fugees classics.