Wyclef Jean
Wyclef Jean
Wyclef Jeanelle Jean is a Haitian rapper, musician and actor. At the age of nine, Jean moved to the United States with his family and has spent much of his life there. He first achieved fame as a member of the acclaimed New Jersey hip hop group the Fugees. Jean won three Grammy Awards for his musical work...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionRapper
Date of Birth17 October 1969
CountryUnited States of America
bring caribbean music producers
We try to bring a lot of live musicianship to the music. A lot of grooves. We're Caribbean; we from the islands. Out of the music industry, I'd say we're the Caribbean producers of the world.
forward kids listen listening moving music toward using
The way that we're moving forward toward music, it's all about using music together. We have hip-hop, we have rock, (but) all the kids now, we all listen to the same thing. If you're listening to rock, you're listening to rap.
bounce carnival country matter music
When you go to Carnival every year, you bounce to, you-know the different music that make it to Carnival in Trinidad. It don't matter about the country you're from.
artist best musical produce producing role slowly work
When we produce our stuff, we're cool. But when you're producing artists, you take the role of a psychiatrist - a musical psychiatrist. You have to work slowly with an artist to show them how to do it. It's all about just doing the best music for the individual.
age age-and-aging call circuits fans hear living modern music ring talking tone year
We're living in the modern age now. I call it the Year of the Matrix. Back in the day, you had these mixed-tape circuits where if you wanted to get (unreleased) music to your fans, you could go through DJs. Now all our fans have to do is go to their phones, and they'll be the first ones to hear something. And we're not talking about a ring tone here. We're talking about downloading a whole song, or a video.
help music rebel
Our music is more rebel music. We do music for society, for humanity, to help and to heal.
artists biggest money musicians opposed owned pay people rather spend studios
When I think about the biggest studios in New York, they're owned by people that are not musicians or artists, and artists come in and spend their money there, and they'd rather do that, as opposed to getting the headache. So they pay someone else to get the headache.
school musical band
I was a jazz major in high school, in an all-jazz band. No matter what I do, it features my musical influences.
artist brings gotta loop throw
It's not fake. I don't need to go in the studio, throw in a record, do a loop and put it out. To find an artist, you've gotta find the artist that brings it to you. There has to be a 50/50 balance.
coming growing hard
It was hard in the beginning: coming from Haiti, coming to Brooklyn. I mean, growing up in the projects.
children haiti hurt innocent violence
I want to see the violence in Haiti stopped. Innocent people, innocent children are getting hurt and killed every day.
album caribbean guitar mixed playing rock since style talking
I'm going to do an all-guitar album because I've been playing since I was 13. My Caribbean style mixed with my rock style. I want to do a musicians' album-just the guitar talking with different melodies.
double house kicked led raised
I led a double lifestyle-in the house, I was one way, and out the house, I was another way. Man, the whole house raised hell, then I got kicked out.
losing therapy
I had to make this album. It was my therapy after losing my dad. If I didn't have music, I'd probably be strung-out somewhere.