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Latest Wyclef Jean album gobbles musical territory, with themes near, dear to the native Haitian
By Malcolm X Abram
Beacon Journal
Published on Thursday, Jan 17, 2008
Back in the 20th century, circa 1994, an eclectic New York hip-hop trio calling itself the Fugees released its debut album Blunted on Reality. The album didn't garner much public interest, and for a time it also carried the distinction of being the lowest-selling debut album for parent company Columbia records.
It would seem impossible to fall prey to the proverbial sophomore slump when your debut sinks like Vanilla Ice's street cred. But the trio of emcee/producer Wyclef Jean, emcee Pras and emcee/singer Lauren Hill's second album, The Score, was a surprise hit. It was one of the best rap albums of 1995, with hits that included an updated cover of Roberta Flack's Killing Me Softly (With His Song), Bob Marley's No Woman No Cry and the Fugees' own Ready or Not.
The Fugees (short for refugee, a nod to Pras and Jean's Haitian heritage) became immediate pop stars beloved by critics for eschewing gangsta lyrical cliches and mid-'90s G-Funk grooves for a more social-minded viewpoint and eclectic, but still head-nodding beats.
The album sold more than 17 million worldwide, and the members all recorded solo albums, with Hill's The Miseducation of Lauren Hill receiving the most critical and commercial attention. To no one's surprise, the group, whose tensions had been alluded to on Hill's record, broke up just as members reached their collective heights.
While Pras was always the least interesting and talented member of the trio and Hill has been unable to properly follow her debut due to personal problems, Jean, who will be performing with Toledo-bred Lyfe Jennings at the House of Blues Cleveland on Tuesday, has become an in-demand hit producer of eclectic artists. His resume has an impressive array of artists in different genres and countries, including rappers Scarface, Timbaland and Big Pun; reggae artists, such as Buju Banton, Bounty Killer and Wayne Wonder, and pop/rockers Kenny Rogers, Bob Dylan, Mick Jagger, the Neville Brothers, Bono and Columbian hip wiggler Shakira (Hips Don't Lie).
His dogged eclecticism, his love of the entire world of music and ability and desire to work with nearly anyone manifests itself on his latest album, The Carnival Volume II (Memoirs of an Immigrant) released in December. The album, his sixth solo release in a decade, showcases his versatility. And though artists who are determined to show how ''eclectic'' they can be often wind up with unfocused, watered-down genre exercises, Jean manages to successfully cover quite a bit of musical ground. The album's themes of the trials and tribulations of immigrants help it all hang together.
Only three of the disc's 14 tracks don't feature a guest, and while the list is pretty impressive, no one takes too much of the spotlight from Jean. The album's lead single, Sweetest Girl (Dollar Bill), features Akon, Niia and Lil' Wayne. System of a Down's Serj Tankian joins reggae dance hall disc jockey Sizzla on the rap/rock/reggae Riot, while Nation of Islam leader minister Louis Farrakhan breaks out his violin for Welcome to the East.
Paul Simon joins in for the R&B cautionary tune Fast Car. Rapper Chamillionare shows his versatility, dropping a smooth verse on the immigrant-concerned Hollywood Meets Bollywood (Immigration) over a heady groove that reportedly sports 32 rhythmic patterns from around the world and finds Jean singing in Punjabi. Singer Mary J. Blige joins Jean on the sobering and realistic What About the Baby? and Norah Jones sings a bit on the acoustic guitar-fueled pop song Any Other Day. Jean joins young R&B singer Melissa Jimenez on Selena, an ode to the slain Chicano Tejano queen.
The album received mostly good reviews, but hasn't exactly burned up the Billboard charts, opening at 28 and currently sitting at the number 64 spot. But Jean told New York Magazine last month the album's success is in the process.
''This album means so much to me — it's like Bob Marley's Exodus or Marvin Gaye's What's Going On,'' he said. ''I was so excited about everybody (who) came and worked on the album. For me, it's like a cast: I'm Gershwin, and this is my Porgy and Bess. You've got Norah Jones, T.I., Paul Simon . . .
''T.I. co-executived on the album, and it was good to have the new blood of the new generation. And to have Paul Simon on the same record was the whole idea — putting everyone together. Paul Simon is genius; I was in awe being in the studio with him.''
Jean, 37, also has no shortage of confidence in his abilities.
''How can I say this in the most modest way?'' Jean said to London's the Daily Telegraph in November. ''I feel like they could analyze this at Berklee (the famous music college). This is the new version of music theory. I am like a modern-day Quincy Jones, for real.''
As his career has blossomed, so has his personal mission to bring attention to the plight of Haiti, where he was born in Croix-des-Bouquets and raised until he was 9 years old, when he moved to the projects in Brooklyn.
An official goodwill ambassador to/for Haiti, Jean is the eldest of five children and married to Haitian-American fashion designer Marie Claudinette. A few years ago, the couple adopted a girl, Angelina Claudinelle.
His social work is spearheaded by his foundation, Yele Haiti, started in 2004. The nonprofit raises money to build schools, feed and educate youths, train teachers and find work for those living in some of the country's worst areas.
In 2006, he took his buddies Angelina Jolie (for whom his daughter is named) and Brad Pitt to Haiti to help him plead for support on the Caribbean nation's behalf from the World Bank and the U.S. Congress. His continued commitment to help his homeland is shown in his purchase of a Haitian television station, Telemax, the outfitting of a school near his hometown with a computer lab and his recent public blasting of a U.S. study that said Haiti was the ''steppingstone'' for AIDS.
While music will always be his claim to fame, the husband, father and proud Haitian realizes that he can't save his homeland through pop music.
''If you want to change a country, unfortunately you are not going to be able to help eight million people at one time. But if you can get one or two and three and start to make that change, that will make a difference,'' Jean said to the Miami Herald during a U.N. helicopter tour of Haiti in December.
''My responsibilities have grown beyond music. For me, music happens to be secondary now. And the mission of the country happens to be first.''
Malcolm X Abram can be reached at mabram@thebeaconjournal.com or 330-996-3758.
Back in the 20th century, circa 1994, an eclectic New York hip-hop trio calling itself the Fugees released its debut album Blunted on Reality. The album didn't garner much public interest, and for a time it also carried the distinction of being the lowest-selling debut album for parent company Columbia records.
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