Hottest Thing On The Dock -- Fugees, Ziggy's Opener, A Big Draw On The Waterfront

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Ziggy Marley and the Fugees, 7:30 p.m. tomorrow, Summer Nights at the Pier; sold out. -----------------------------------------------------------------

It's a good bet that tomorrow's Summer Nights at the Pier show quickly sold out because of the opening band as much as for the headliner.

Ziggy Marley is, of course, a phenomenal young talent who has crafted his own thriving reggae career quite apart from that of his legendary father, the late Bob Marley. But Ziggy and his band, the Melody Makers, have played here a lot, including back in February at the Moore Theatre.

The Fugees, however, is just about the hottest new group in popular music. Its album, "The Score," has sold 4 million copies since it was released in February, and is still at No. 4 on the Billboard album chart. The Fugees' sweet, luminous cover of Roberta Flack's "Killing Me Softly" is a radio favorite, as is the group's lively cover of the elder Marley's reggae classic, "No Woman, No Cry."

With the Fugees' mostly positive, uplifting slant on lyrics and emphasis on musicianship, especially on stage, the group has taken hip hop to a new level. The band's success signals a growing sense of maturity and responsibility in hip hop, which was becoming stale and boring, with violent revenge fantasies and angry rants delivered in familiar ways with familiar rhythms.

The Fugees constantly surprise, with shifts in style and intensity from song to song, showing fierceness and fire in one, and romance and caring in the next.

By all accounts, the Fugees really tear it up in concert. Although the band does work with a deejay, most of the music is very live, which adds a sense of immediacy and drama to the performance. Audiences seem to make emotional connections to the band, because many of its songs deal with the kind of personal and social issues its fans are concerned with.

"The Score" is a concept album, "ghetto theater" about the settling of a score. Although it may not be apparent from casual listening, the album cuts - even the covers - are all connected to the storyline. Parts of it portray violence - a confrontation between an Asian-American store owner and an African-American customer, for instance - but as part of an evolutionary process toward mutual understanding.

While the music of the Fugees is bracing and fun, it's the sweet voice of young Lauryn Hill that captures most listeners. A sometime actor ("Sister Act 2," TV's "As the World Turns") and a Columbia University undergraduate, she unites R&B vocal traditions with hip hop - a modern Aretha Franklin. Prakazrel "Pras" Michel and Wyclef "Clef" Jean, who each play several instruments, round out the core of the Fugees (both are of Haitian descent - Jean was born there - and the band's name is in honor of Haitian refugees). They're backed by several other musicians.