Playlist: The Very Best of Wyclef Jean

Liner Note Author: Bill Murphy .
Photographers: Dahlen Wee; Stephanie Pistil.
The former Fugees member and musical melting pot known as Wyclef gets his own entry in the Playlist series, and while this 2012 release would do best to update 2003's Greatest Hits, it merely replaces it. Actually, Greatest Hits is the last album covered by this set as two exclusive tracks are grabbed off that compilation, and while Wyclef made the jump from the Sony/CBS family to J Records with his late 2003 release The Preacher's Son, he came back to the Sony family in 2007 with his Columbia effort Carnival, Vol. 2: Memoirs of an Immigrant. Still, nothing from that Sony Phase II career is offered -- a shame since the albums have been rich but overlooked -- and the desirable Fugees bonus that capped off Greatest Hits -- a cover of Bob Marley's "No Woman, No Cry" -- has been removed. Still, this is an excellent, portable set if early Wyclef is in order and a sure-fire buy, unless it's sitting right behind a copy of Greatest Hits. ~ David Jeffries