The group had been on one helluva roll. The Score was inescapable throughout 1996: three of the album's singles ("Fu-Gee-La," "Killing Me Softly," "Ready Or Not,") had enjoyed tremendous international chart success, pushing that album to a staggering seven million copies sold in the United States. Things appeared to still be white-hot at the top of 1997: a Wyclef produced Lauryn Hill single called "The Sweetest Thing" appeared on the soundtrack for the romantic film Love Jones. But the implosion had begun while The Score was still being completed; it was during the recording of the album that the married Wyclef and Lauryn's relationship turned romantic; and it was while promoting that album that Lauryn ended things and began seeing Rohan Marley, son of reggae legend Bob Marley.

"I'm a sexy guy. Things happen," Wyclef said years later. "The worst thing is to be in a group with a banging [beautiful] female, period. She's banging. And I don't care who you are, you're a man, you're gonna be like..."

Hill seemed to send verbal shots on the final track of The Score.

"There's always friction," Wyclef stonewalls. "You always going to get confusion and anger and all of that, but when we on stage - lightning and fire."

But as the Fugees empire expanded via The Refugee Camp All-Stars, Hill became frustrated with Jean focusing on other projects and sidelining her. Hill contributed songwriting and production to songs that would wind up on what was now becoming Wyclef's first official solo album. But her frustration was boiling over. And Hill was also now pregnant. Her baby would become a point of consternation between she and Wyclef, as he wrote about years later in his 2012 autobiography. According to Jean, Hill led him to believe her baby was his when Marley was the actual father.

“In that moment something died between us," Wyclef wrote. "I was married and Lauryn and I were having an affair, but she led me to believe that the baby was mine, and I couldn’t forgive that. She could no longer be my muse. Our love spell was broken.”

The angst of Jean and Hill's dissolving chemistry hangs over Wyclef Jean Presents: The Carnival; but it doesn't define an album that serves as Jean's coming-out party, of sorts. Without the charisma of Lauryn Hill at the forefront, ...The Carnival was marketed via Jean's own persona and quirks; and his multifaceted talents take centerstage throughout the album.

“Coming from The Score, that was pretty daring,” he said in a recent interview with Spotify. “I didn’t feel pressure at all. I just knew that I wanted to paint a piece of art. I didn’t know how it would be received, though, but I knew it felt good and I just had a vision in my head. I was like, ‘Yo, I want to paint the world as one global melting pot of music.'”

One of the album's most famous songs, "To All The Girls" finds Jean seemingly referencing his relationship with Hill and his failed marriage. The singer/songwriter talks about infidelities and jealousies, acknowledging that he's a serial cheater and quasi-apologizing for his womanizing ways. Lauryn's presence is nonetheless felt through her stellar lyrical showcase "Year Of The Dragon," and stirring vocalizations on "Gunpowder" and at the end of "Sang Fezi."

But make no mistake, The Refugee All-Stars are prominent throughout The Carnival. Ex-Fugee Pras, Clef's siblings Melky Sedeck and John Forte all contribute greatly to the sound and feel of The Carnival. "Bubblegoose" is all of the Jean siblings doing their thing on a breezy tune that features Clef storytelling and Melky Sedeck's musicality. Forte's lyrical skills are at their scene-stealing best on "Street Jeopardy," an indicator of the kind of career the famed emcee would begin before his 2001 prison stint that abbreviated things.

The album's Caribbean soul is its lifeblood. On "Yele," Wyclef closes things out with a subdued swaying melody, as Lauryn accents his ode to Haitian perseverance. Celia Cruz guests on hit single "Guantanamera," the kind of song that made The Carnival so unique in 1997.

“When I experienced the critical, commercial success of The Carnival, I definitely was surprised because, I mean, this album is in over four languages and it has rhythms all over the place — and this is long before we had streaming platforms where you can go from afrobeat to reggae to disco to kompa to folk songs,” Jean told Spotify.

“It’s a blueprint, you know? When I listen to Drake, I listen to like Kanye, I listen to Young Thug, some of my favorite artists, Kendrick Lamar, WizKid, Burna Boy, Michael Brun, I can always hear a piece of The Carnival, for sure.”

The album's broadness, combined with its undeniably slick production, could've been dismissed as indulgent were it not for Jean's masterful sequencing and exquisite taste. Funk/soul legends The Neville Brothers appear on "Mona Lisa," and The New York Philharmonic give gravitas to acoustic single "Gone Til November." The track is both mournful and wistful, serving as a semi-autobiography for Wyclef's life. The video famously featured a cameo from Bob Dylan, and became a fixture on MTV.

It's easy to stereotype 1997 as the year of "Shiny Suit"-ism; and for good reason: bright, gaudy music videos were all the rage; sampling easy-to-spot pop songs made for a litany of hits, and the overall formulaic approach yielded big hits but a lot of empty music.

But there was something also undeniably eclectic about the way Hip-Hop crossed over that year.

Missy Elliott's infectious weirdness; the rowdy eclecticism of Busta Rhymes; and there was Wyclef. As his group deteriorated in his hands; the Haitian-American superstar with the genre-bending jones suddenly sampled the Bee Gees, dropped a Cuban anthem, and an acoustic guitar-driven single about an immigrant's journey. He became one of the biggest stars in music, and one of the most successful songwriters/producers of his era. By the end of 1997, Wyclef would produce the megahit "Ghetto Supastar" for Pras, Mya and Ol' Dirty Bastard, and he'd deliver the hit "No, No, No," the debut single for a young girl group out of Texas called Destiny's Child.

It's virtually impossible to discuss Wyclef Jean Presents: The Carnival without acknowledging it's painful birth and the demise of one of Hip-Hop's most beloved trios.