Wyclef Jean takes the global gusto of the Fugees’ debut, The Score, several steps further on his first solo album, rhyming earnestly over a wide range of boom-bap, reggae, calypso, and Latin rhythms. Sonically, the album is as eye-opening as a trip around the world, but topically, it's still deeply rooted in hip-hop. Wyclef is as proficient a narrator on third-person, ’round-the-way crime stories (“Bubblegoose”) as he is on romantic struggles like the frank open letter “Gone Till November.”