Db major · Camelot 3B · 89 BPM
Fu-Gee-La
by Fugees
- 89
- BPM
- Db major
- Key
- 3B
- Camelot
- 69
- Danceability
- 14
- Acousticness
The Fugees were working on a song for Spike Lee's Clockers movie when "Fu-Gee-La" came together. That track never appeared in the film, but during the session Wyclef Jean asked producer Salaam Remi to play a beat he had made for Fat Joe. When Remi played it, Wyclef jumped up and rapped the first verse of "Fu-Gee-La" on the spot. Lauryn Hill had asked to hear the same beat, and the pieces fell together from there. The song was finished before work on the album began, and Remi later said much of The Score's vibe grew out of it.
Released on December 13, 1995, through Ruffhouse and Columbia Records, the single led off the group's second and final album, The Score. Remi produced the track, which sampled Ramsey Lewis's "If Loving You Is Wrong (I Don't Want to Be Right)" and interpolated Teena Marie's "Ooo La La La" in the chorus. It reached number 29 on the Billboard Hot 100, the trio's best showing on that chart, and topped the Billboard Maxi-Singles Sales chart before going platinum with the RIAA.
The music video was shot in Jamaica, where the group set out to recreate the feel of Jimmy Cliff's 1972 film The Harder They Come. It followed a robbery-related plot, with each member of the trio playing a particular role. Remixes, including a "Sly & Robbie Remix" featuring a young Akon, also appeared on The Score.
Fu-Gee-La runs at 89 BPM, the tempo of boom-bap hip-hop, reggae and slow R&B. In classical terms it sits in andante territory. A bar of 4/4 lasts 2.7 seconds, and a quarter-note delay is 674 ms. It is in Db major, Camelot 3B, which shares its notes with Bb minor and mixes cleanly with F# major and Ab major.
We use multiple sources as part of our online research for the song story including Wikipedia.