PRAS MICHEL

Win, Lose or Draw

It is practically a truism in American life: the notion of reinvention and second chapters. And for the enigmatic Pras Michel, one third of the nineties super group, the Fugees, that notion is one that he realizes will be a natural question from a curious public as he releases his second, full-length work as a solo artist, the fatefully titled Win, Lose or Draw. “It’s a second chapter in the sense of the public eye,” he muses. “But in my mind and heart it’s more about continuation and growth. In life we try to grow and better ourselves. As an artist, I feel like I’ve grown tremendously. I feel I’m a little bit more comfortable in my skin now than I was, say, ten, even five years ago.”

For Pras Michel, Win, Lose or Draw provides the armor and sustenance for that jungle. “Coming off The Score I did the “Ghetto Supastar” record as a demo.  A friend of mine got it to Warren Beatty and Interscope, and it became a big single. Then, in came the classic, ‘oh my god, yo, let’s put an album together, now.’ I was rushed into the studio. I really can’t blame anyone but myself, because I didn’t have to deliver the album. But when you get caught up in the gas, and you’re young, and there’s so much helium going on around you, you can’t decipher the real end. Later, I realized that I was compromising myself. So, for this album I was determined to do it my way. Take my time. I’m gonna win, lose or draw on my own.

One listen to Win, Lose or Draw will convince you that Pras Michel, indeed, went for it. As befitting a member of the Fugees, the album pulses with the same thoughtfulness and sociopolitical vision that marked the Fugees individual and collective work, along with a grown-man maturity that’s all Pras Michel. “When we came up with titles like ‘Ready or Not’, that’s how we really felt. Sometimes people say things because it sounds cool. But when I say I’m with the revolution, especially now, I’m dead serious about it. There’s a lot of madness going on out there. Artists can only be what they are, but the industry [today] only goes with what they think people wanna hear.”

Pras Michel plunges into those issues in honest and sincere fashion on Win, Lose or Draw. From the first single, “Haven’t Found” to the soon to be immigrant anthem, “For Love,” a heartfelt letter to his fellow Haitians, to the Salaam Remi produced, ragga driven “Dance Hall,” featuring Sean Paul and Spragga Benz, to the passionate sentiments voiced on “Party Over,” lamenting a hip-hop world gone blind (“...war going on and y’all don’t even know”), Pras Michel chants down the new Babylon, in his own distinct manner. Fellow Fugee alum Wyclef Jean even turns up “Angel Sings” for a compelling trip down nostalgia lane. “I didn’t want to do the whole, get the hottest person thing,” Pras Michel explains. “I wanted to make sure every record felt right. The record Clef and I did, “Angel Sings,” was just sitting there. So I said, ‘Clef, I got a record, hit a verse on it.’ He just went in, messed around and ended up doing the hook too.”