The Ecleftic: 2 Sides II A Book

He's done it again. Arguably the most credible and without doubt the most adventurously talented figure in mainstream hip-hop, ex-Fugee Wyclef Jean has managed to outmatch his first solo outing, 1997's Carnival.

Spread over 79 minutes The Ecleftic is an epic, skilfully created journey through latter-day black American culture, touching on almost every musical style and genre while staying firmly rooted to its hip-hop base.

Despite the sprawling nature of this hip-opera there's little enough filler. Even the opening salvo, a preposterous conversation between Jean and his record company boss, the legendary Tommy Mottola (who berates him for not delivering another Fugees record), makes sense. Jean then kicks in with 'Where Fugee At', where he has a thinly veiled go at his former bandmates as well as his more hardcore critics: *Some MC's in the underground mad at me because I'm above ground counting English pounds. But success don't come overnight and I was in Noah's Ark for 40 days and 40 nights.*

Jean's forte has always been to look beyond the claustrophobic confines of the ghetto, and along with the R...B, reggae and ska rhythms predominating, country, opera, classical, and even progressive rock also get a look in.

The most audacious cut is a collaboration with silver-haired countrypolitan dinosaur Kenny Rogers who lets Jean run riot on a cut-up version of Rogers' 'The Gambler'.

Most chilling of all is 'Diallo', a reggafied eulogy to slain West African immigrant Amadou Diallo, who was controversially shot dead by New York police officers last year. Like Stevie Wonder's 'Living For The City' it opens with a hair-raising re-enactment of the incident when 41 bullets were emptied into the unarmed Diallo as he tried to reach for his ID card. *You said he reach sir, but he didn't have no piece sir, Now he rest in peace, sir.* The theme of refugees and immigrants is re-visited often here as Jean (himself a Haitian immigrant) recalls growing up an outsider. *Dad used to tell me about the American dream. My dream was waking up in the projects as a teen.*

Along the way he duets on more radio friendly fare with Mary J Blige on '911' and Whitney Houston ('Whitney Houston Dub').

But the highlight and sure to be the one plucked for maximum radio play, is Jean's faithful take on Pink Floyd's 'Wish You Were Here'. Like Led Zeppelin's 'Kashmir', this is an unlikely candidate for hip-hop duties if ever there was one, but it works better than anyone but Wyclef Jean could imagine

This is going to be massive.