Wyclef Jean Presents The Carnival

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.

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[3]
Chicago Tribune	[4]
Entertainment Weekly	A[5]
The Guardian	[6]
Los Angeles Times	[7]
NME	8/10[8]
Pitchfork	8.0/10[9]
Rolling Stone	[10]
Spin	8/10[11]
The Village Voice	A−[12]

The Carnival was released to critical acclaim.[13] 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."[12] 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.[14]

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".[15] 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."[15]The Carnival was voted the sixteenth best album of the year in The Village Voice's annual Pazz & Jop critics poll for 1997.[16] Christgau, the poll's creator, ranked it twentieth on his own list.[17]

In 2011, Rolling Stone ranked The Carnival the 69th best album of the 1990s.[18]

The Carnival debuted at number sixteen on the US Billboard 200, selling 52,000 copies in it first week.[19] It also debuted at number four on the US Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart. The album spawned the singles "Gone Till November", "We Trying to Stay Alive", "Guantanamera" and "To All the Girls". On December 16, 1998, the album was certified double platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for sales of over two million copies in the United States. The album also sold over 5 million copies worldwide.

• Wyclef Jean – guitar, keyboards
• Rita Marley – background vocals
• Judy Mowatt – background vocals
• Marcia Griffiths – background vocals
• Sonny Kompanek – arranger
• Salaam Remi – producer, engineer, mixing
• Warren Riker – mastering, mixing
• Rudy – assistant engineer
• DJ Skribble – scratching
• Funkmaster Flex – scratching
• Crazy Sam & Da Verbal Assassins – performer
• Manuel Lecuona – mastering
• Rawle Gittens – mixing assistant
• Tony Gonzales – assistant engineer
• Lauryn Hill – arranger, performer, executive producer
• Jerry Duplessis – guitar, bass, producer
• Alex Olsson – mixing assistant
• John Forté – performer
• Jay Nicholas – mixing assistant
• Pras – performer, executive producer
• Melky Sedeck – performer
• New York Philharmonic Orchestra – performer
• Tomas Muscionico – photography
• Mike Roach – mixing assistant
• Storm Jefferson – mixing assistant
• Paul Epworth – assistant engineer
• Brian Dozoretz – engineer, mixing assistant
• Jocelyne Béroard – performer
• Sweet Micky – performer
• The Neville Brothers – performer
• Celia Cruz – performer