Lauryn Hill and Wyclef Jean Stage Surprise Fugees Mini-Reunion During YG Marley's Coachella Set

Saturday at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in Indio, Calif., was dominated by the return of No Doubt, but another iconic '90s group pulled off a surprise main-stage mini-reunion Sunday — when reggae-fusion rapper YG Marley, the 22-year-old grandson of Bob Marley and son of Lauryn Hill, brought out his mother and her on/off Fugees bandmate, Wyclef Jean.

The show then quickly exploded into an all-star revue, with YG (who so far has released only one official single under this name, the top 40 hit "Praise Jah in the Moonlight") stepping back to let his elders — including another special unexpected guest, legendary rapper Busta Rhymes — take over his stage. Hill, who played Coachella solo in 2011 and made surprise cameos at the festival in 2014 (with Nas) and 2017 (with DJ Snake), was the first to emerge, three songs into her son's set, to croon her Miseducation of Lauryn Hill hits "Ex-Factor" and "Lost Ones." Wyclef then came out for the Fugees' interpolated cover of the Lori Lieberman/Roberta Flack classic "Killing Me Softly," along with "Fu-Gee-La" and "Ready or Not," for the amazed audience.

Rhymes then bounded out to do his own smash "Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Could See" and spit his verse from Chris Brown's "Look at Me Now," before everyone onstage joined in for a celebration of YG's grandfather's legacy, doing a medley of Bob Marley & the Wailers' "One Love," "People Get Ready," "Exodus," and "Is This Love." The epic set ended on a peace-and-love note, with YG's "Praise Jah" and Wyclef shouting, "Coachella, if you don't want no more war in the world, put your hands in the air!

Hill, Jean, and their Fugees bandmate Pras (who did not appear at Coachella this weekend) staged a short-lived comeback in September 2021, playing an eight-song show at a New York City-area Global Citizen event and announcing plans for a 25th-anniversary Fugees tour. However, those dates were postponed just a few weeks later due to COVID concerns, and in January 2022, the Fugees' reunion tour was scrapped entirely. Wyclef and Lauryn played four songs together, without Pras, at New Orleans's Essence Festival in July 2022. "When you put YG Marley and the Fugees together, this is what it sounds like!" Wyclef declared onstage Sunday. It sounded pretty fantastic, so perhaps that Fugees reunion tour can happen after all... with the young Marley stepping in.

Tags

Lauryn Hill, Wyclef jean, The Fugees, Coachella