Wyclef Jean puts on a lively carnival in support of his new CD

Unlike his big hit, former Fugees member Wyclef Jean wasn't killing us softly on Monday night. In town to promote a new CD, The Carnival II: Memoirs of an Immigrant, the dapper rapper came out in a gold lame jacket but quickly got down and dirty, rocking Landmark Mandarin Oriental's MO Bar for almost two hours. (Usually these music showcases last for maybe 30 minutes.)

It was certainly entertaining and over the top. Jean jumped on the bar, did handstands on stage, played a guitar with his teeth and admonished guys still in their business suits mid-show: 'Yo man, that tie has got to go!' All the while, his loose jeans kept sliding past his backside in a hip hop, reggae, pop fiesta that had the crowd jumping, screaming and throwing their hands in the air. During one freestyle rhyme, he even worked in some Cantonese (lei ho ma) and name-dropped Jay Chou as a future collaborator.

To just call it a Wyclef concert would be slightly misleading, though. At various times, he was merely the MC sidekick exhorting the crowd to get wild as the DJ spun old-school beats and current grooves. At one bizarre point, it even turned into a 1980s dance party as oldies from a-ha, Cyndi Lauper and David Bowie's Let's Dance were played. 'Eighties music, baby!' Jean would shout when he wasn't chewing out the bartender for handing him a Budweiser. 'Muthaf@#ka, I'm in Hong Kong. I want a Chinese beer!' You can't say he's not a crowd pleaser.