John Forte - Ninety Nine Flash The Message Featuring Wyclef Jean, Pras & Jenny Fujita

What this video is

Released May 1998 as the lead single from John Forté's debut album Poly Sci on Ruffhouse/Columbia Records, 'Ninety Nine (Flash the Message)' represents the Refugee Camp collective's creative orbit at the height of its commercial influence following The Fugees' landmark 1996 album The Score. Forté — the first non-Fugee signed to the Refugee Camp label — was embedded in the Fugees' creative ecosystem, having…

Why it matters

A significant artifact of the Ruffhouse Records hip-hop canon, the video documents the Refugee Camp collective's reach into solo artist branding. The track's cross-genre sampling strategy — lifting a canonical 1980s New Wave record — reflects the era's appetite for pop-rap hybridity and presages…

The director

Dean Karr (b. February 22, 1965, Seattle, WA) is a Los Angeles-based American photographer, music video director, and commercial filmmaker. He attended Washington State University (BFA) and the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. He is known for a…