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"Taste the culture, know who you are," exhorts a voice in the opening seconds of The Carnival. While Fugees mastermind Wyclef sets a high goal for his first solo album, essentially a follow-up to the Brooklyn hip-hoppers' multiplatinum The Score, he never succumbs to feel-goodism or preachiness while traveling the songlines. Including everything from over-the-top operatic scatting to Bee Gees samples and Celia Cruz as part of its rhythm nation, The Carnival proves that, "Killing Me Softly" or no, the rapper/producer is far from losing his knack for mad fun and games. And, indeed, if you're not careful, you may end up learning something: witness the ballad "Gone Till November," a drug runner's unflinching lament. --Rickey Wright