ARTIST: Wyclef Jean TITLE: Masquerade LABEL: Columbia GENRE: Hip-Hop GRABBER: EAC (Secure Mode) ENCODER: Lame 3.97 / -V2 --vbr-new QUALITY: 168 Kbps Avg / 44.1 KHz / Joint Stereo PLAYTIME: 1h 09min 23sec total SIZE: 83.32MB RELEASE DATE: 07-18-2002 RIP DATE: 06-21-2007 Track List ---------- 01. Message To The Streets 0:56 02. Peace God 3:51 03. PJ's 3:59 04. 80 Bars 4:30 05. Masquerade (Feat. Bumpy Knuckles & 3:59 M.O.P.) 06. 1-800-Henchman (Spoken Word) 0:11 07. You Say Keep It Gangsta (Feat. Butch 3:58 Cassidy) 08. Party Like I Party 3:46 09. Oh What A Night 4:01 10. Hot 93.1 (Spoken Word) 0:04 11. Pussycat (Feat. Tom Jones) 3:48 12. Midnight Lovers (Skit) 0:07 13. Two Wrongs (Feat. Claudette Ortiz) 3:49 14. Instant Request (Skit) 0:19 15. Thug Like Me 4:44 16. Daddy 3:30 17. Knockin' On Heaven's Door 4:01 18. The Eulogy (Skit) 0:40 19. War No More 3:59 20. The Mix Show 4:36 21. MVP Kompa (Feat. Melky Sedeck) 5:09 22. Ghetto Racine 5:26 Release Notes: Wyclef Jean prides himself on having a vision, which he does. Few of his peers are as determined to appeal to as broad an audience as a possible, dabbling in everything from ragga to sugary pop, tying it all together as a self-conscious "big statement." His ambition has been clear since The Score, if not the Fugees' debut, and with each of his post-Fugees solo projects, he's worked with the same basic template -- a lot of pop, a lot of hip-hop, reggae, and worldbeat touches, lots of social consciousness, a little does of party anthems, all produced with enough gloss and melody to reach a wide audience, yet with enough NPR sensibility to bring in the serious-minded progressives, no matter their age. If anything, he perhaps tipped a little bit too close to the pop last time around, letting Kenny Rogers in for a new version of "The Gambler," so the first part of his third album, Masquerade, feels like a bit of an overcorrection, as he toughens up the beats, brings in the hard(er) rappers, and aims to the street. Then, after the point has been made, it settles into a Marley-esque reggae groove, before easing into pop for a while, then winding up back in Marley territory with "War No More." Throughout it all, Jean's musical skill is impressive and most of this long, 20-track album is quite pleasurable, but his skills as a recordmaker waver on occasion. The primary problem is that Wyclef wants to be everything to all people, so he'll hit too hard on the hip-hop, then back way up and invite Tom Jones into the studio for a new, not very good, version of "What's New, Pussycat," while rewriting Frankie Valli ("Oh What a Night") and Dylan ("Knocking on Heaven's Door," which now contains shoutouts "to Biggie Smalls and 2Pac...to my people in the twin towers") with equal abandon. He pushes too hard on sermonizing, no matter if it's pompous pleas to the ghettos or heartfelt laments (a spoken tribute to his recently passed father, "War No More," a "Redemption Song"-styled protest song with the unforgettable line, "this looks like a scene from the movie Star Wars"), which offsets the lighter tracks. Instead of sounding generous and openhearted, it's a bit muddled and confusing, especially when taken all at once -- but when isolated in parts, or heard in passing, it's an enjoyable record. Group News ---------- We're looking for: -Rippers With Unreleased Music, New Promo, Pre-Retails or Mixtapes. -Peeps with albums 2003 and older for Internal VBR ripping and archiving. -100+Mbit EU/AS Sites/HQ For Affil. If you have any of the above, feel free to contact us. You know how... We're here to bring you nice tunes to jam along to, whether it's current year or not, covering all genres and languages. We also release VBR internals for albums that have never been ripped in VBR before for optimal quality. Quality over Quantity is our motto. In this jungle and maze of groups, we are trying to be a unique crew and bring back the fun into this. Shouts to all the groups who put out quality releases and our affils for having us.