The August MMMM challenged solvers to find a famous hip-hop group. The grid’s six theme entries are all two-word phrases, and the first words of each phrase have a corresponding synonymous entry elsewhere in the grid … with a catch. The corresponding entry needs to have the prefix RE- “imagined” at the beginning in order to make the entry synonymous, as follows:

The first letters of the corresponding entries, as highlighted in bold above, spell out F-U-G-E-E-S, leading to this month’s meta answer, the Fugees. Note that the band’s name originated as a shortening of the word “Refugees,” making it a particularly apt answer for this meta mechanism!

Meta Song:

Had a lot of fun creating this one – enjoy!

Selected Solver Comments:

ab   Makes me think of the great Rock Sugar and their albums Reimaginator and ReInventinator.   Had to look them up – fun!

ryoustra   Terrific idea and execution, you triumvirate never fail to impress.

Mikey G   Not sure why that played hard, but it did! Man alive – 6 hours, 30 minutes, but we got there!   Nice perseverance – congrats!

Jonesy   One of my favorites, I wonder how many will grok the “refugees” extra tie-in!   

Trout Almondine   This is the cleverest and most satisfying puzzle of the year so far!   Thanks!

KayW   Since the prompt specified “hip-hop” I am going with FUGEES. But I see there is also a folk-rock group called the REFUGEES. I guess that really WOULD be hip-hop “re-imagined”   Indeed!

Evan   Neat fitting in a group whose name fits the same pattern of (RE)fugees.

Alternative Music Clues:

Evan suggests cluing WAND as [Psychedelic band whose music on their album “Vertigo” was described by the music critic Langdon Hickman as “a magician’s trick”] and MALL as [Performance venue for a pianist whose audience might have just met Santa Claus].

pbfrommn suggests cluing HUES as [The ___ Corporation, group with the 1974 #1 hit “Rock the Boat”] and FIGHTS FOR as [What someone who follows the advice of the Beastie Boys does with regard to their right to party?].

Groaners:

Mattyx   Markable.

benchen71   Man, were you killing us softly with this difficult meta!

strybner   Nothing soft about how this metanism was killing me!

sharkicicles   I was miseducated but a kind solver gave me a slight nudge.

FunkyPhD   Exposed The Miseducation of FunkyPhD

Totals this month:

132 correct, 35 incorrect

Rating: 4.35 out of 5 stars

Difficulty: 4.12 out of 5

Monthly mug winner: Sean Forbes from Crest Hill, IL

Thanks to Ben Chenoweth for filling in for Matt Gaffney and blogging the puzzle at Crossword Fiend, where you can rate the puzzle (thanks!) and/or leave a comment.

Thanks to Tamara Brenner for the graphic.

Thanks for playing and see you next month!