Ex-member of the hip-hop group was convicted of money laundering and campaign finance violations after funneling money from a rich Malaysian
F
rom the moment the Fugees shot to fame in the mid-90s, Prakazrel “Pras” Michél was discounted as an incidental member of the hip-hop superstars. He was the unremarkable New Jersey rhyme spitter by way of Brooklyn who was lucky enough to be a high school classmate of the mesmerizing Lauryn Hill and a cousin to mercurial Wyclef Jean. On the group’s breakout album The Score, Michel’s eight-bar features were minor contributions, relative to Hill’s adroitness as an emcee and balladeer and Jean’s compositional polymathy.
“From Hawaii to Hawthorne, I run marathons, like / Buju Banton, I’m a true champion, like / Farrakhan reads his daily Qur’an / It’s a phenomenon, lyrics fast like Ramadan,” Michél raps on the band’s breakout single Fu-Gee-La, in one of his more pedestrian efforts.
The Score was a towering success commercially (with 22m units sold) and critically (with two Grammys), but Hill’s and Jean’s competing ambitions ended up seeing the band separate. Neither missed a beat as solo artists – Hill made Grammy history with The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, and Jean charted with The Carnival before moving on to produce hits for Carlos Santana and Shakira.
