Wyclef Jean

Carnival Vol. II: Memoirs of a Refugee

December 04, 2007

By Mr. Marlowe

*** 1/2 / ****

Released 2007

Has it really been ten years since Wyclef’s very underrated solo debut The Carnival arrived as an anecdote on the hip-hop scene? So it seems and during that time I’ve grown ever more certain that The Carnival is a great rap fusion album that never quite got its critical and popular due. There is good reason, however, why most critics and the general populace haven’t seen The Carnival in the same light as yours truly. Truth be told, Wyclef is a bit of an egomaniac and inside joke obsessive, and those aspects combined with the fact that Wyclef has emerged as more of a social activist than a meaningful rap artist have contributed to his persona being infinitely more well-known than his albums.

Enter ‘Clef’s latest, Carnival Vol. II: Memoirs of a Refugee, his sixth solo album. Will this be the album that finds Wyclef visiting the genius of his solo debut and at last earning the kudos of the critics and the masses for his music rather than merely his public message? I sure hope so because this is undoubtedly the best Wyclef album in a decade.

Following the template of his original masterpiece, Carnival Vol. II features a smorgasbord of famous collaborators and a wide spectrum of musical styles fused together with a surgeon’s precision. Rap, reggae, rock, R&B, soul, world beat, and on and on make this a full blown real time carnival that is more diverse and effective than even his ’97 stunner. In addition to an entirely new group of contributors, Vol. II differs most notably from its predecessor by adding an additional topic to the forefront: American immigration, the hot political issue of Election 2008. It’s a risky move for Wyclef putting this much focus on such a controversial subject, but because it is and has been his bread and butter for so long he pulls it off with grace, style, and an array of fascinatingly gritty tales of America, 2007.

The best tunes on Vol. II feature Wyclef’s collaborators untethered and doing their thing full force. The Rock/rap cut Riot is gold as ‘Clef teams with System of a Down’s Serj Tankian and rapper Sizzla for an adrenaline pumping master class that thrashes the last great superstar rock/rap union, Jay-Z and Linkin Park’s Encore, to smithereens. With Wyclef and Serj trading rhymes back and forth to perfection the track is pure brilliance on all fronts. On a completely different tip, the Paul Simon duet, Fast Car, is another stand out with its soft guitar picking and hip-hop drumbeat. Again, Wyclef and his collaborator are on-point and never for a moment is there any awkwardness in this very surprising artistic union.

Other musical fusion standouts include the carnival-like spirit of Touch Your Button Carnival Jam, a raucous Brazilian inspired tune, the operatic reggae bounce of Selena, and the Akon, Lil Wayne, Wyclef triumvirate performing modern pop-rap on Sweetest Girl, which is unquestionably more addicting than any Billboard #1 pop single this year by a landslide. And let’s not forget Welcome to the East (featuring Louis Farrakhan, yes, that Louis Farrakhan on violin!), the Indian-rap otherworldly brilliance of Hollywood Meets Bollywood, and the Shakira tinged King and Queen. The former two are brilliant and a long time coming bringing the east to modern American pop. The latter, which doesn’t quite work despite the obvious efforts involved, is nonetheless dying to give anything by Fergie, Beyonce, and Nelly Furtado a run for their money.

As a whole Vol. II is excellent and trumps Vol. I most prominently in choosing to bypass those annoying “comic” seqeues that sunk The Carnival before it ever had a shot at critical acceptance. It also feels more current than its predecessor did in ’97 and doesn’t try nearly as hard as the original to be different. Memoirs of a Refugee just plain is different and only rarely does it get bogged down in shoe horning artists into cameo roles (like on King and Queen) or on Wyclef’s self-referential silliness. Most essential to this album’s success is that the collaborators performances measure up to the ferocity of what they’ve done before and never feel like just another day at the office for anyone involved. Lucky for Wyclef and all of us, his contributors aid rather than hinder his menagerie of personalities. The result is an album that is as cohesive in its diversity as it is diverse in its cohesiveness.

No matter how you slice it, Wyclef’s latest album is a sophisticated production of the highest order and most energetic kind. Whether or not it edges out its alter ego, The Carnival is yet to be seen but it certainly puts up a helluva fight and never dips to that albums lowest depths. Perhaps most importantly, Memoirs of an Immigrant proves, like the original Carnival, that The Fugee’s hardest working contributor is still a very effective force in the hip-hop world not only as one of its most positive public face, but as an innovative and exciting musician as well.

Quite simply, Memoirs is a great album and one of the best rap efforts of 2007.

Best Songs: Riot, Fast Car, Sweetest Girl, Touch Your Button Carnival Jam, Hollywood to Bollywood