Released June 24, 1997 Length 73:51 Release date 24 June 1997 | Recorded 1996–February 1997 Artist Wyclef Jean Label Ruffhouse Records | |
 | ||
Producer Wyclef Jean, Jerry Wonda The Carnival
(1997) The Ecleftic 2 Sides II a Book
(2000) Genres Hip hop music, Reggae, Pop music Nominations Grammy Award for Best Rap Album Similar Wyclef Jean albums, Hip hop music albums | ||
The carnival intro court clef intro
The Carnival is the debut album released by American hip hop musician Wyclef Jean. Released on June 24, 1997, Jean also served as the album's executive producer. The album was a critical and commercial success, reaching at number sixteen on the US Billboard 200 chart, and reaching the top five on the Top R&B Albums chart, peaking at number four and garnered Jean two Grammy Award nominations for the 40th Grammy Awards, including one for Best Rap Album. The US top ten hit, "Gone till November" earned Jean a nomination for Best Rap Solo Performance at the 41st Grammy Awards in 1999.
Contents
Wyclef jean presents the carnival 20th anniversary celebration live from l a
Music and lyrics
The album encompasses many musical genres, including hip hop, reggae, folk, disco, soul, Son Cubano and Haitian music. The album features guest appearances from Celia Cruz, The Neville Brothers and Jean's bandmates from The Fugees, Lauryn Hill and Pras. It also features skits between many of its songs, most of them set in a fictional trial for Wyclef Jean, in which he is accused of being "a player" and a "bad influence". The final three songs on the album are sung in Haitian Creole.
Commercial performance
The Carnival spawned the singles "Gone Till November", "We Trying to Stay Alive", "Guantanamera" and "To All the Girls". The album sold over 5 million copies worldwide, and was RIAA certified 2x Platinum.
Critical reception
The album received Universal Acclaim. In a contemporary review for The Village Voice, music critic Robert Christgau found the album more R&B than the "diasporan flavors" it uses as "half decoration, half concept", and remarked that Jean uses the sampler for "one-dimensional tunes" that showcase his "well-articulated morality tales and popwise carnivalesque." In his review for Playboy, Christgau asserted that the album is more likely than any other well-meaning hip hop to impact the demographic it aims at and also works as an attempt to prove Jean is equally worthy of the attention given to Lauryn Hill.
Stephen Thompson of The A.V. Club, in a favorable review, called The Carnival "a stunning solo album that's light years beyond The Score". He also wrote "In his universalist embrace of music of all forms, Wyclef Jean makes a more powerful call for peace and unity than a thousand East Coast-West Coast "Stop the violence, y'all" intros put together."
The Carnival was voted the sixteenth best album of the year in The Village Voice's annual Pazz & Jop critics poll for 1997. Christgau, the poll's creator, ranked it twentieth on his own list.
Personnel
Songs
ApocalypseRefugee Camp All-Stars3:49
GuantanameraRefugee Camp All-Stars4:30
BubblegooseRefugee Camp All-Stars3:49