Pras: Ghetto Supastar

It's been a pretty exciting ride for the members of The Fugees, both together and apart. After 1996's half-masterpiece The Score, the group could have easily devolved into an Arrested Development for the late '90s. The trio's ostensible leader Wyclef Jean, however, weighed in with the expansive, ambitious, and frequently great The Carnival in 1997, outdone only by Lauryn Hill's The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill, one of 1998's signature albums. Even Jean protégé Canibus' bizarre debut, Can-I-Bus, is pretty good, and the pair's still-ongoing feud with LL Cool J, however mean, hearkens back to hip-hop's classic era. The ride stops, or at least slows down considerably, with the release of Pras' solo debut, Ghetto Supastar. The title track, first heard on the Bulworth soundtrack and featuring Ol' Dirty Bastard and Mya, played a major role in the sound of this past summer, but things get pretty thin beyond that unstoppable single. Despite the fact that it opens with a cheesy, portentous/pretentious version of Handel's "Hallelujah" chorus, Ghetto Supastar delivers a Pras who 1) is not the only begotten Son of the one true God, and 2) is not even a particularly exciting performer. Songs like "What'cha Wanna Do" and "Get Your Groove On" start off well enough, but go nowhere. "Blue Angels," which samples the theme from Grease, and "Can't Stop The Shining (Rip Rock Pt. 2)," a sequel to the old-school-rock-derived track that closed Canibus' album and features Lenny Kravitz, don't quite work, either. Making matters worse, Supastar occasionally stops dead to feature answering-machine messages congratulating Pras on his new album; participants include Donald Trump, Chris Tucker, Flavor Flav, Elton John, Eartha Kitt, Naomi Campbell, Carly Simon, Puff Daddy, Elvis Costello, Pras' mom, and others. It's nice that Pras has friends, but devoting about 15 minutes to their well-wishing dilutes an already watered-down album. They should have waited to hear it first anyway.