Even though he’s not the household name he may have been at the end of the 90s, Wyclef Jean, is most definitely still around. In fact, he’s a pretty prolific artists, who’s been dropping new tracks on a regular bases. And all of the material is very diverse and interesting.
This year alone, he’s released several tracks. First as part of the “J’Ouvert” EP, which was released in February of this year, and now, he’s releasing tracks to promote a full blown album, “The Carnival Vol. III: The Fall & Rise of a Refugee" (or “Carnival III” in short). The album will be released later this month, and is currently available for pre-order.
The EP that Wyclef released, earlier this year, had one major surprise on it. He covered an old French chanson called “Ne Me Quitte Pas” (Don’t Leave Me). The video of him performing the song reached over 1 million views on Vevo and a very mixed review by fans. Some applause his bravery to take on a French song and others debate whether it really is French or Belgian French. Oh, well you can never please everyone. C’est la Vie. But musically, the song is also different from anything he’s done, even though beats and shout-outs bring this song slightly up to date.
Wyclef has already moved on to promoting his next release, “Carnival III”, and the songs from his upcoming album are bringing even more aspects of Wyclef Jean to light. “What Happened To The Love” featuring Lunch Money is a high energy, smooth, disco soul pop song. It’s catchy and you can’t sit still listening to it.
“Fela Kuti” brings in a more worldly feel. With horns and African rhythmic influences, this song is a party song with a twist. Also very catchy and whatever Wyclef Jean touches usually does seem to get some sort of hip hop feel to it.
To me, it’s quite a surprise to see the amount of views drop to dramatic proportions – considering it’s Wyclef Jean – with these latest audio releases on YouTube. They’ve only reached near 6000 people each, which makes me wonder whether people are not catching on because they aren’t official videos or if they are just not catching on at all, which I think is a real shame where “What Happened To The Love” is concerned.
