Wyclef Jean Is A Haitian-American Multi-platinum Musician, Rapper, And Record Producer.
Neluset Wyclef Jean was born October 17, 1972. The son of a Nazarene pastor, Wyclef briefly attended Eastern Nazarene College, where his younger brother Sam graduated with a degree in history.
Wyclef moved with his family to Brooklyn, New York, when he was thirteen, before moving again to northern New Jersey. He worked briefly as a Burger King crew employee as a teenager, before he was fired. Jean has been a resident of Saddle River and South Orange, New Jersey. Jean, who regrets dropping out of college, has announced plans to attend Boston's Berklee College of Music.
In 1994 he married Fusha designer Marie Claudinette. In 2005 they adopted their daughter, Angelina Claudinelle Jean. The couple renewed their vows in August 2009.
His uncle, political activist, journalist and diplomat Raymond Alcide Joseph, is the Haitian ambassador to the United States since 2005, and came to prominence as a spokesman for his country after the devastating 2010 Haiti earthquake and together with Wyclef issued an appeal for international aid.
Fugees-era Jean's musical breakthrough was as part of The Refugee Camp (The Fugees), a three-member group that included Lauryn Hill and Prakazrel "Pras" Michel. Jean is Pras's cousin and a fellow Haitian immigrant. The Fugees signed to Ruffhouse Records, which released the group's debut album, Blunted on Reality. It sold fairly well, peaking at #49 on the U.S. Hot 100 and selling over 2 million copies worldwide. The follow-up album The Score sold over 18 million copies worldwide, eventually becoming a multi-platinum, Grammy-winning album.
Jean announced plans to begin a solo career with 1997's Wyclef Jean Presents the Carnival Featuring the Refugee All-Stars (generally called The Carnival). The album's guests included Lauryn Hill and Pras along with Jean's siblings Melky Sedeck and Farel Sedeck Guerschom Jean, the I Threes (back-up vocals for Bob Marley), The Neville Brothers and Celia Cruz. The album was a hit, as were two singles: "We Trying to Stay Alive" (adapted from The Bee Gees' "Stayin' Alive") and "Gone Till November" (recorded with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra).
Solo career At the concert Woodstock 1999, Jean paid homage to 1969 Woodstock performer Jimi Hendrix by setting fire to his guitar after playing "The Star-Spangled Banner", and burnt his fingers while doing so.
Jean's second solo album, released in 2000, was The Ecleftic: 2 Sides II a Book. This was recorded with guests including Youssou N'Dour; Earth, Wind & Fire; Kenny Rogers; The Rock; and Mary J. Blige. With Blige he released "911" as a single. He was nominated for Best Hip-Hop Act at the 2000 MTV Europe Music Awards.
Following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, Jean participated in the benefit concert America: A Tribute to Heroes contributing a cover of the Bob Marley song "Redemption Song".
Jean's third album, Masquerade, was released in 2002. His fourth album, The Preacher's Son, was released in November 2003 as the follow-up to his first solo album, The Carnival.
In 2004, he released his fifth album, entitled Sak Pasé Presents: Welcome to Haïti (Creole 101) (released in the United States by Koch Records). Most of its songs are in his native language of Haitian Creole like "Fanm Kreyol" with the French Caribbean Admiral T. He also figured on the album Mozaik Kreyol of this one in the song "Secret Lover". Then he covered Creedence Clearwater Revival's song "Fortunate Son" for the soundtrack of the 2004 film remake of The Manchurian Candidate and wrote the song "Million Voices" for the film Hotel Rwanda.
Jean also produced and wrote songs for the soundtrack to Jonathan Demme's 2003 documentary The Agronomist, about the Haitian activist and radio personality Jean Dominique. With Jerry 'Wonder' Duplessis, Jean also composed the score of the documentary Ghosts of Cité Soleil,[13] in which he appears onscreen speaking by telephone in 2004 to a "chimere" gang-leader and aspiring rapper, Winston "2Pac" Jean.
During a period between 2004 and 2006 and fueled by a reunion performance in Dave Chappelle's "Block Party", it appeared that the Fugees were on track to record a new album, however Fugees member Pras claims to Billboard "To put it nicely, it's dead." He says the root of this animosity is the third member of the group, Lauryn Hill, saying to Billboard, "Me and Clef, we on the same page, but Lauryn Hill is in her zone, and I'm fed up with that shit. Here she is, blessed with a gift, with the opportunity to rock and give and she's running on some bulls**t? I'm a fan of Lauryn's but I can't respect that."
Jean released an album in September 2007 that he recorded in Atlanta, Georgia, with the help of T.I.. Recently, Wyclef released a new song called "Sweetest Girl (Dollar Bill)" featuring Lil' Wayne, Niia and Akon, which references the song "C.R.E.A.M." by the Wu-Tang Clan. The album also features a single, "Fast Car", whose video was made with the assistance of video game Burnout Paradise. In November 2008, an upbeat single 'Let Me Touch Your Button' featuring will.i.am (of The Black Eyed Peas) was released in the UK in conjunction with Wyclef's invovlement with UK MOTOROKRSTAR (which sees Motorola UK on the search to discover British talent).
In 2009, he featured in a song called "Spanish Fly" with Ludacris and Bachata group Aventura in Aventura's upcoming album "The Last" which came out in June. On June 17, 2009, Wyclef announced via Twitter that his new album will be called wyclefjean to be released sometime in February 2010.[citation needed] The first single off of wyclefjean is to be titled "Seventeen" and will feature Lil' Wayne.
In November 2009, A track titled "Suicide Love" featuring rapper Eve leaked online prior to the release of his EP. Wyclef Jean's EP named From the Hut, to the Projects, to the Mansion was released on November 10, 2009. It includes 17 tracks, featuring Cyndi Lauper, Timbaland, Eve, and Lil' Kim. In this album, Wyclef uses the alias Toussaint St. Jean, his alter ego when he raps.
Jean's self-entitled studio album is due to be released in 2010. "Hold On," the lead single from the project will feature Dancehall artist Mavado. Yéle Haiti Wyclef at the ONEXONE benefit in San Francisco, October 2008In 2005, Jean established the Yéle Haiti Foundation. In its first year of operation, the foundation, with funding by Comcel, provided scholarships to 3,600 children in Gonaïves, Haiti, after the devastation by Hurricane Jeanne. In its second year of operation, it is almost doubling the amount of the scholarships and spreading them throughout Haiti, providing tuition in 5 regions. The foundation aims to provide 6,800 scholarships to children in Port-au-Prince, Gonaïves, Les Cayes, Port-de-Paix, and Cap-Haïtien.
The Foundation filed its tax forms for 2005–2007 all in August 2009, a delay Charity Navigator characterized as "odd" even among charities, and "beyond late".[19] Much of Yéle Haiti's money has been paid out to Wyclef Jean, his relative and fellow Yéle Haiti director Jerry Duplessis, or companies they own. For example, the Foundation claimed about $1,000,000 in revenue for 2006, but paid $250,000 to Telemax, a television station controlled by Jean and Duplessis, $31,000 to rent its own offices from Platinum Sound owned by Jean and Duplessis,[20] and $100,000 for Jean's own performance at a benefit concert in Monaco, when Jean had been paid only $40,000 as headliner at 2002 festival at the top of his career with the Fugees.
Hugh Locke, president of Yéle Haiti, said "I think people should be very comfortable that any money given to Yéle Haiti is going 100 percent to emergency relief." and that the group hopes to increase the percentage of its budget on services as it gains experience. He described the concert payments as "not our finest hour".[21] A spokeman for Yéle Haiti's public relations firm described paying Jean's and Duplessis' companies as an opportunity to receive services at a "severely reduced" rate and a "significant discount".
Yéle Haiti, and its predecessor the Wyclef Jean Foundation, have been involuntarily dissolved by the Florida Division of Corporations on multiple occasions for failing to file required state disclosure reports. Of the $1,142,944 in total revenue the foundation collected in 2006, at least $410,000 was paid directly to Jean and his business partner for rent, production services, and Jean's appearance at a benefit concert.
In a 2009 interview with Allhiphop.com writer Han O'Connor, Wyclef stated that his priority for the organization was to raise money to build the Yéle Center, which would be a facility that consists of a sports center, Wyclef Jean School of the Arts, a cultural center focusing on the environment and an internet café. During the interview he claimed that he feels the key to improving the situation in Haiti is to build sustainable opportunity.
After the earthquake on January 12, 2010 in Haiti, Jean called on others to donate to his foundation's Yéle Haiti Earthquake Fund, imploring "We must act now. Jean has been active in his support of his native country and created the foundation Yéle Haiti[26] to provide humanitarian aid and assistance to Haiti. He describes Yéle as a non-political organization intended to empower the people of Haiti and the Haitian diaspora to rebuild their nation, saying, "The objective of Yéle Haiti is to restore pride and a reason to hope, and for the whole country to regain the deep spirit and strength that is part of our heritage".[citation needed]. Yéle Haiti was created in October 2004 with Wyclef's cousin Jerry 'Wonder' Duplessis and humanitarian experts Sanjay Rawal and Natabara Rollosson. Projects were launched in January 2005. Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt were present for the first anniversary of the launch in 2006.
