After the Fugees sold nearly 5 million copies of their boundary-jumping 1996 hip-hop album “The Score,” most of the attention was focused on emcee Lauryn Hill, who cooed the lead vocals on the group’s hit remake of Roberta Flack’s “Killing Me Softly.”
But the group’s other mainstays, Wyclef Jean and Prakazrel “Pras” Michel, played an equal role in that success.
Jean’s abilities as a rapper, producer, songwriter and guitarist were affirmed on his 1997 solo debut, “Wyclef Jean Presents the Carnival” (Ruffhouse/Columbia), and will be on display Thursday when Jean brings a five-piece band and a gaggle of rappers to the House of Blues. This year, Michel also is scheduled to release a solo album, as is Hill.
Jean set himself apart from most hip-hop releases last year with the musical ambition of “The Carnival,” which draws on ethnic grooves and melodies from around the world.
” `The Carnival’ is a big festivity viewed from a passing Go-Kart with deejays playing music from all over the world,” says Jean. “If you ever go to carnival in Brazil or Trinidad, it’s a place where your color doesn’t matter, prejudice doesn’t matter. It’s where everyone — the priest, the drug dealer, the innocent kid — stands side by side and is one with the people around them. That’s what I was going for — even if you can’t understand the language, it’s raw and you can feel it.”
Not only does Jean sing several songs in Creole Haitian, but he also incorporates a wide variety of musical styles: classical (he conducted the New York Philharmonic on “Gone Till November”), surprisingly fresh reinterpretations of the Afro-Caribbean anthem “Guantanamera” and “House of the Rising Sun” (his remake of the Bee Gees’ “Stayin’ Alive” is less persuasive), and rhythms that range from reggae and calypso to Haitian kompas and funk.
What’s more, in contrast to many of his contemporaries who beef up their albums with cameos by best-selling rap stars, Jean brings in distinctive voices from other eras and cultures to broaden his album’s reach: salsa legend Celia Cruz guests on “Guantanamera,” the Neville Brothers harmonize on “Mona Lisa” and Jamaican singers the I-Threes bring a righteous sweetness to “Gunpowder.”
“I never approach a well-known song like I’m going to replicate it, whether it’s `Killing Me Softly’ or `Guantanamera,’ ” Jean says. “I wouldn’t put `Stayin’ Alive’ out as a single, but within the context of the album and the scenario of the carnival it makes sense: a bunch of different musics played by different deejays from around the world.
“It’s designed to educate, too. A lot of kids who listen to this record have probably not heard these songs before, like my 10-year-old sister. Now she knows who the Bee Gees are.
“After we did `Killing Me Softly,’ a lot of people went cover crazy. They saw us sell millions of records, so they tried to copy the approach. But they didn’t have the formula we have. The idea is to make the song raw and real, not just jacking the most popular melody or riff.”
Jean’s approach to hip-hop has been unique from the start. When he immigrated with his family to Brooklyn from Haiti at age 9, he learned English by studying rap records. He then tried to emulate the music.
“I was also a deejay, but my mom bought me a guitar when I was 11 to keep me off the streets, and I tried to play hip-hop with it,” he says. “We used to go to the park and try to duplicate the records. And I was building up this record collection from rock to jazz to Israeli music that was pretty obscure, at least by hip-hop standards.”
This casual eclecticism distinguished the Fugees’ record, and is even more pronounced on “The Carnival.” Jean says that rather than becoming intimidated by the success of “The Score,” he became more determined.
“I wanted to put something out that was credible, that established we weren’t a one-hit wonder or sold albums on a gimmick,” he says. “When people heard `The Carnival,’ I wanted them to realize that this is a band that will be around a while.”
Pass the hanky
Eric Clapton will release a new album, “Pilgrim,” in March, containing a dozen originals and two covers, including Bob Dylan’s “Born in Time.” The first single, to be released next month, will be a song called “My Father’s Eyes,” which sounds like a sequel of sorts to his big hit “Tears in Heaven,” written in tribute to the son he lost in an accidental fall several years ago. The new song also is addressed to the boy, and has the added twist of mentioning the father Clapton never knew (the guitarist was reared by his grandparents).
“When you were here with me I looked into my father’s eyes,” Clapton sings.
The Clapton release is one of several high-profile albums in coming months that are expected to give guitar-rock fans a reason to part with their money. Pearl Jam’s “Yield” will be out in February, former Led Zeppelin bandmates Robert Plant and Jimmy Page are finishing a new studio album, and all three acts are expected to go on major summer tours.
