**1/2 John Forté

POLY SCI

(Ruffhouse/Columbia)

A product of both the streets of Brooklyn and the halls of Phillips Exeter, John Forté just may be this year's model for hip-hop success. He's also the first new act to emerge from the Fugees' extended crew, having guested on The Score as well as Wyclef Jean's The Carnival. Indeed, at his best, Forté is very much at home under the Fugees' stylistic tent on Poly Sci, especially on the Wyclef-produced "Ninety Nine (Flash the Message)" and "They Got Me," with its nylon-string guitar hook. Intelligent and pop savvy, he has the good sense to temper heavy philosophy and dark minimalism with a sing-song backing melody on "God Is Love God Is War," the disc's most unconventional track. He still succumbs to a kind of token gangsterism, countering each literary reference ("reading Hawthorne") with a "mo'fucka," and following every shoutout to Dow Jones with a complaint about a "bitch." Then again, exploring the many contradictory impulses embodied in a single artist is just what an album with a title like Poly Sci ought to do.

-- Roni Sarig