Ms. Lauryn Hill and Wyclef Jean have launched Fugees Hopeline, an interactive phone line created with the art platform CIRCA to mark the 30th anniversary of the Fugees' landmark album The Score. The project is more than a nostalgic callback: it is also the first chance in two decades to hear new Fugees music, with callers getting a preview of a previously unreleased 20-minute medley from the group.
Anyone in the United States can call +1 (424) 7-FUGEES — that is, (424) 738-4337 — while listeners elsewhere can reach the line on WhatsApp. Callers hear personal messages recorded by Hill and Jean, along with a 60-second preview of the unreleased medley. They are also invited to leave their own reflections on hope, which CIRCA says will be gathered into an evolving sonic portrait and an archive of life in 2026. The idea takes its cue from artist John Giorno's Dial-A-Poem, a phone line he launched in 1968, and the Hopeline number is also being shared on screens in London, Paris, Tokyo, Los Angeles and New York, according to Complex's report on the launch.
CIRCA describes the medley as the first new official Fugees release since "Take It Easy," the group's 2005 single — making this the first new Fugees music in 20 years. The project marks 30 years since The Score, the Fugees' second album, and arrives alongside three original collages by Hill, with limited-edition fine-art prints signed by both Hill and Jean available through CIRCA.
For Hill, the line is about more than music. "Hope is a living thing. It breathes, it reaches, it carries us through what we cannot yet see," she said in a statement shared with Complex. "The Hopeline is an invitation to listen, to speak, and to remember that we are not alone in what we carry." Jean framed it in similar terms, saying that when he and Hill first wrote music together, "we wrote about what we saw, what we felt, and what we hoped for," and that the Hopeline "gives that hope a voice again."
Whether the Hopeline leads to a fuller Fugees release remains to be seen — neither the announcement nor CIRCA's page promises a full album. For now, the phone line itself is the release: a small, direct way to hear Hill and Jean together again, and to add your own voice to the archive. To hear it, call the number above or visit CIRCA's official Fugees Hopeline page.
Sources: CIRCA — Fugees Hopeline | Complex — Ms. Lauryn Hill and Wyclef Jean Share New Fugees Music Through Interactive 'Hopeline'