After the death of his father on September 3rd, 2001, Wyclef Jean went into the studio to try to find some peace. The ensuing weeks were hard -- first there was 9/11, and then the death of his girlfriend's mother.

"We've had the roughest six months ever," he notes. "But I learned I was happy to be an artist, to be able to make songs about the pain."

Three months later, Jean had completed most of his third solo album. On Masquerade: Message to the Street: Hot 93.1, due this summer, he promises a return to his hip-hop roots: "We can't forget to pay homage to what brought us into the game in the first place."

It's a claim lived up to by the title track, which features Brooklyn rap bruisers M.O.P., and the chorus-free battle track "80 Bars." Clef nods to vintage soul music on "Two Wrongs Don't Make a Right," a blissful, ethereal duet with City High's Claudette Ortiz.

Clef also delivers a stirring spoken-word ode to his late father. "I cried through the whole joint," he says. "These words come from a really hard place."

In other places, the old Wyclef shines through. The album's most bizarre track, "Pussycat," for example, is an island-casual collaboration with Welsh beefcake Tom Jones. "'Ecleftic' is something I am," Wyclef concedes. "I can't help it."

STEVE APPLEFORD
(March 29, 2002)