This summer, Paris witnessed a solar eclipse, France’s first since the 1990s. The arrival of Ms. Lauryn Hill and Wyclef Jean performing a sold-out show as The Fugees in the romantic City of Light marks just as rare an occasion. Over 20,000 Parisians of all ages loved them down last night as they performed at Accor Arena on September 2.
As The Fugees, Hill, Jean and bandmate Prakazrel “Pras” Michel brought an unprecedented level of musicianship, musicality and internationalist flair to hip-hop that influenced everyone from Black Eyed Peas to Young Thug. Samples and interpolations from diverse musical bedrocks like Roberta Flack, for their biggest hit “Killing Me Softly with His Song,” and Afro-Caribbean band Cymande, on the title track to The Score, made the eclectic, patois-infused Fugees soulfully global.
Reflecting a one-world vision of acceptance and tolerance, where their backgrounds — Hill as African American, Jean and Michel with Haitian roots — and all voices in between could be heard, they created a sound that has endured.
Coming off the Diaspora Calling! U.K. debut, held at the National Bowl in Milton Keynes, England, on August 7, posters promoted the Paris show as Hill’s own concert featuring Jean as a special guest (Michel is currently incarcerated on a 14-year sentence), celebrating the 30th anniversary of The Score. The Fugees album has sold over 22 million copies worldwide since it dropped in 1996. And now, so much time has passed that Zion Marley and YG Marley, Hill’s adult sons who boast their own successful music careers, also graced the stage.
In true Lauryn Hill fashion, the Paris concert started late, a habit fans have debated endlessly online. But after roughly a 90-minute wait, it didn’t sour fans’ enthusiasm when she appeared.
Le public de l’@Accor_Arena devient fou lorsque LAURYN HILL lance “Lost Ones” 🔥
Avec Skyrock 🏟️ pic.twitter.com/CCvzISmcAM
— Skyrock FM (@SkyrockFM) September 2, 2026
Dressed in a flamboyant red feathered jacket, burgundy blouse and flared green trousers, with icy diamond wrists and tightly curled sisterlocs, Ms. Lauryn Hill commanded the stage, giving Parisian rap fans everything they came for. Her solo set included fresh arrangements of songs from The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, including “Ex-Factor,” “Everything Is Everything,” “To Zion,” and “Lost Ones,” ironically a kiss-off to Jean.
Her children came next, adding another generation to the lineage. YG Marley and Zion Marley performed songs from their grandpa, the immortal Bob Marley, including “War” and “Turn Your Lights Down Low,” as well as songs of their own: YG’s “Praise Jah in the Moonlight” and Zion’s “Best of Me.”
Jean, dressed in all black with a skull cap while playing a Louis Vuitton guitar, sometimes behind his head and with his teeth, appeared for The Fugees’ hits, with the French crowd singing along to “Fu-Gee-La,” “Ready or Not,” “Zealots,” and more.
The year 2026 has already become a major moment for fans of The Fugees and the conscious hip-hop movement they represent.
Returning to the Grammy Awards stage this past February, the first time in 27 years, Hill led a sizeable all-star posthumous tribute to her neo-soul brethren D’Angelo and Roberta Flack. She also joined Ye (a.k.a Kanye West) onstage during his L.A. tour stop to assist on “All Falls Down,” which famously samples her own “Mystery of Iniquity.”
The BET Awards then blessed Hill with her own all-star tribute in June, with a generation-spanning lineup of stars, including Common, Queen Latifah and SZA, along with Tierra Whack and Tems, who have openly declared Hill as an influence. Whack pointed specifically to The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill as an album that helped expand her own creative possibilities.
Hill just posed with kindred spirit Erykah Badu for Outlander magazine, their first joint photo shoot, just a few weeks ago. Touring globally in the same season that Erykah Badu dropped her recent release Before the World Blows, her first album in 16 years, speaks to the appetite for ’90s music, which backdrops memes and moments going viral today.
Questlove once described the ’90s hip-hop scene as something out of Star Wars, with Jedi like The Fugees, Common, The Roots and Black Star representing organic, socially conscious music alongside hip-hop’s increasingly commercial and luxury-driven aesthetic. Seeing Badu and Hill return in these anti-progressive, politically conservative times gives hope that the American cultural pendulum may swing the other way, at least artistically.
And there may be more ahead. Having lived through the truth of time healing all wounds, last month Hill told BBC News there was “absolutely” new Fugees music on the horizon, with what she described as an “incredible healing process” finally behind them.
With Hill’s worldwide tour celebrating The Score, everyone has reason to believe again, and appetites seem primed to relive the past while looking toward the future.
Let their renaissance begin.