`SCORE' ONE FOR THE FUGEES : ALBUM'S RECEPTION ADDS TO RAP ACT'S CROSSOVER SUCCESS.

Byline: Amy Linden The New York Times

It's several hours before the start of the recent Fugees show here at the Irvine Auditorium on the University of Pennsylvania campus, and the rap trio - two-thirds of it, anyway - is well into its preshow sound check.

The stage is filled with technicians, roadies, promoters, security personnel and hangers-on. With all the commotion, it would be easy to overlook the band on stage, that is, until Wyclef Jean, the group's 26-year-old guitarist and rapper, tears off eardrum-splitting riffs over the booming hip-hop track the disc jockey is playing.

Out in the empty seats, Lauryn Hill, 20, the group's singer and another rapper, is dancing and shouting encouragement. (Prakazrel Michel, 23, the third member, has skipped the sound check to shop for clothes for the Fugees' coming appearance on Roseanne's new television show, ``Saturday Night Special.'')

What passes for a sound check for most rap groups is a perfunctory test of microphones and sound equipment. Not the Fugees; their preshow routine is tantamount to a full-fledged 45-minute rehearsal, in which the rappers and band members spend time riffing and working out arrangements like a jazz group. Like Run D.M.C. and Public Enemy before them, the Fugees are redefining hip-hop.

In less than four months, since the release of their second album, ``The Score,'' the Fugees have become not only the hottest rap act but also the biggest crossover surprise of the year.

Without a lot of record-company fanfare, ``The Score'' entered the Billboard album chart at No. 12. Driven by the group's faithful remake of Roberta Flack's 1973 ballad, ``Killing Me Softly,'' the album has sold 200,000 copies a week and, since March, remained in the top five, a rarity for rap records, which usually make their debuts high, then fade quickly.

Last week ``The Score'' dislodged Hootie & the Blowfish's ``Fairweather Johnson'' from the top spot.

Even the Fugees are at a loss to explain the album's unexpectedly broad appeal. They view themselves as essentially a rap act and say they were surprised by the mainstream success of ``The Score.''

``It's all a mystery,'' Jean said of the album. ``We were trying to do it so that it catered to the streets. And that it did. From there, well, it just went on.''

Hill describes the Fugees' sound as ``a little rice and peas mixed with a little collard greens, a little mango with watermelon.'' She is referring partly to the group's blending of reggae, funk and hard-core hip-hop and partly to the cross-cultural ancestry of its members.

Jean was born in Haiti and came to the United States at age 9. He and his cousin, Michel, whose parents also come from Haiti, grew up in Brooklyn and then Newark, N.J. Jean led the choir at his father's Nazarene church.

Hill, the daughter of civil servants, grew up in nearby East Orange, N.J. (She is on a leave of absence from Columbia University, where she is a sophomore.) The trio met in high school and formed the Fugees, the group's shorthand for refugee camps.

The group recorded its first album, ``Blunted on Reality,'' in 1994. The record received good reviews and produced the hit ``Nappy Heads,'' but the Fugees say it failed to sell because it did not accurately reflect the group's creative strengths; the sultry alto Hill showcased on ``Killing Me Softly,'' for example, was largely ignored.

For ``The Score,'' the group took charge of the production. Hill and Jean wrote and produced all the songs, and Michel served as co-producer and de facto manager.

In a genre not noted for live acts, the Fugees attribute much of their success to the fact that they tour and perform constantly. The Philadelphia show was one of the final dates in a sold-out national tour, and the group just embarked on a European tour. ``We played in front of a lot of people, man,'' Hill said.

A recent show at Tramps in Manhattan is typical of the Fugees live. They rapped in English and Haitian Creole, toasted (a Jamaican precursor to rap) in a dancehall style and sang ballads; the band, with Jean on guitar or piano, played soul tunes and reggae vamps. There were also crowd-pleasing tricks. Michel played guitar with his teeth, invoking memories of Jimi Hendrix.

Hill said the group's musical eclecticism was both a challenge and a source of inspiration to the predominantly black audience the Fugees attract. Like the breakthrough black rock group Living Colour, the Fugees are trying to incorporate musicianship and rock 'n' roll dynamics into their act.

But unlike Living Colour, whose fans were mainly white and suburban, the Fugees are reaching the same audience that listens to a hard-core rapper such as Method Man.

Hill recalled the audience's reaction during a recent gig at the Apollo Theater in Harlem. ``There was some things that they just weren't used to,'' she said. ``Even though they were feeling it, the kids were looking at us, like `damn,' because guitar is associated with rock, and Clef is the first in a long while to take guitar back to a street audience - young kids who are not looking for anything musical.'' She paused. ``That crowd.''

But the Fugees consider it essential to gain the approval of ``that crowd,'' and they have managed to do so even while eschewing the more popular gangsta rap. Their songs run the gamut of subjects from immigration to sexual politics to the good-natured self-aggrandizement that is a staple of hip-hop.

But they don't glorify violence or machismo. Rather than being seen as sellouts or soft in a world where hardness is a virtue commercially, the Fugees are regarded by other rap groups as a hopeful sign for a genre trying to rejuvenate itself.

``A lot of it had to do with the fact that people are a bit fed up, and everyone was looking to turn to something else,'' Trugoy the Dove of the group De La Soul said of the Fugees' success. He predicted that more like-minded groups would emulate them.

At first glance, the Fugees might appear to be just another alternative rap group such as Digable Planets or Arrested Development, groups that caught on with a college crowd. But the Fugees' initial support came from the network of rap clubs, magazines and disc jockeys that pushed ``Fu Gee La,'' the first single on ``The Score,'' months before the album was released.

Even the group's breakthrough hit, ``Killing Me Softly,'' was picked up first by urban radio, despite the fact that the song wasn't released as a single. As word of the song began to spread beyond the rap underground, the Fugees' record company quickly produced a video, which almost immediately became an MTV staple.

As such, the song bridged not only racial but also generational lines. It became a hip-hop song that even suburban housewives could embrace.

The success of ``The Score'' has put the Fugees at the forefront of pop music, and with that come the accompanying rewards. They are getting ready to introduce their own label. They also will headline Smoking Groove, a multi-act summer tour that the industry has dubbed Urbanpalooza.

But even with the group's success, Jean has yet to win over his toughest critic: his father, the minister. ``This is all well and good, but he doesn't find pride in this,'' Jean said. ``He wants me to be a minister. But my mom? She's a little more cool. And she says, `Well, it's not like he's selling drugs or anything.' It's like my dad's message, except my message is for the street.''

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Photo: The Fugees - Wyclef Jean, Lauryn Hill and PrakazrelMichel - view themselves as essentially a rap act and say they were surprised by the mainstream success of ``The Score.''