Masquerade

Ex-Fugee Wyclef’s third solo album is peopled by the ghostly victims of gun-toting America. Wyclef uses the majority of the tracks here to highlight the heinousness of a society that encourages its youngsters, particularly its black youngsters, to adopt guns and crime as a way of life. Brought up as a teenager in Brooklyn’s socially deprived ‘projects’, Wyclef narrowly escaped this kind of destiny himself – hence his messianic zeal in preaching another way.

Masquerade starts strong with top-grade hip-hop about life in the hood. ‘Peace God’, ‘PJ’s’, ’80 Bars’ and the title track are all brilliant, state-of-the art stuff of the genre and light ethereal touches – female backing vocals, Eastern flute, aching strings and piano – provide a rich multi-layered contrast to the hard-man beats and guitar.

As well as hip-hop, there’s plenty of the West Indies-style reggae that Wyclef has brought to almost Marley-like perfection. ‘Daddy’ is a truly beautiful, heartfelt and personal song about Wyclef’s feelings when his father was killed in an accident, while slight lyrical changes in ‘Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door’ does wonders with the Bob Dylan classic, making it highly relevant to street life today. ‘War No More’ follows gracefully in the reggae anti-war tradition, with Wyclef calling for peace in the Middle East.

Sadly the album sags around the middle, as Wyclef moves away from hip-hop towards r’n’b and soul, meanwhile succumbing to the rapper’s weakness of bragging about his achievements (though maybe he’s really example-setting and not bragging at all). These humdingers detract from what is overall a highly satisfying album.