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In addition to the hit singles 'A Perfect Gentleman' [sic!] and 'It Doesn't Matter', Wyclef's latest LP also features an interpretation of Pink Floyd's 'Wish You Were Here'... Wyclef recently contributed to the internationally televised, celebrity fund-raising event for the victims of the terrorist attacks in America where he performed Bob Marley's 'Redemption Song'.It's as if the sleeve note there is trying to get away from the subject of the track that it's actually about.Which is curious because whatever you say about it, it's memorable.
One-off appearances are a bit of a feature of this album; I presume they were able to persuade Sony and BMG (still separate companies in 2001) to join the party, but only briefly. So it is that for all his success with the Fugess and a long list of solo hits, he only really shows up on here with this idiosyncratic ode to an exotic dancer. That's a subject hardly new to hip-hop, but we get a slightly different perspective as Wyclef's protagonist sees tears in her eyes as he goads her with his money. Rather absurdly, this leads into Pretty Woman territory and they decide to e-e-e-e-e-lope to Mex-i-i-i-i-i-i-co, as a result of which he has to call up his mother and say he's in love with a stripper, yo.
The woman gets to have her say in a rapped verse, explaining that she only does this to pay her tuition fees, although she seems curiously unaware that motorised transport has reached south of the border. And it seems slightly to go against the intent of the song that whoever did this vocal isn't actually credited anywhere very prominent. None of this is quite as subversive as I suspect he thought it was but it's catchy. And indeed it was a record that became very annoying at the time, though now I hear it so rarely it's sort of fun.
Also appearing on: Now 65 (with Shakira)
Available on: Greatest Hits
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