I don’t think I’ll ever give up hope that Wyclef Jean, Lauryn Hill, and Pras Michel, collectively known as The Fugees, will one day reunite and repeat the magic of their 1996 album, The Score. In the meantime, Pras has formed a new group called Axxis, and is making the rounds to promote that project. During a recent stop at the offices of US Magazine, the “Ghetto Superstar” rapper reflected on the years he spent being one of the three members of The Fugees, and described the turmoil that existed within the groundbreaking hip-hop group in the midst of Lauryn’s failed romantic relationship with the married ‘Clef (something he acknowledges contributed to the group’s demise, which echoes ‘Clef’s admission of the same in an interview with Chicago’s Power 92 a few years ago). Pras also revealed how Shakira’s smash hit “Hips Don’t Lie” played a part in their ill-fated 2005 reunion:

“I don’t know what happened; I just remember that Wyclef and I were working on ‘Hips Don’t Lie.’ That was a Fugees record; that would’ve been magic if we’d did that record. I think our version was ‘Lips Don’t Lie,’ or something like that…but Lauryn didn’t like it. And then Charlie Walk called me that night, he used to be the president of Epic, and he says, ‘I got to do a remix for Shakira. What you doing.’ I said, ‘You not going to believe this man, I’m depressed. Lauryn Hill walked out the studio. The Fugees is done.’”

Despite their tumultuous history as a group, Pras doesn’t rule out giving a reunion another try, although that’s not what he said a few years ago. Back in 2007, he told AllHipHop.com:

“Before I work with Lauryn Hill again, you will have a better chance of seeing Osama Bin Laden and [George W.] Bush in Starbucks having a latte, discussing foreign policies, before there will be a Fugees reunion.”

Ouch, them’s fighting words. Anyway, check out Pras’s interview with US Magazine in its entirety in the videos below:

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