Wyclef Jean BioLead Fugees rapper and sometime guitarist Wyclef Jean was the first member of his group to embark on a solo career, and he proved even more ambitious and eclectic on his own. As the Fugees hung in limbo, Wyclef Jean also became hip-hop's unofficial multicultural conscience; a seemingly omnipresent activist, he assembled or participated in numerous high-profile charity benefit shows for a variety of causes, including aid for his native Haiti. The utopian one-world sensibility that fueled Wyclef Jean's political consciousness also informed his recordings, which fused hip-hop with as many different styles of music as he could get his hands on (though, given his Caribbean roots, reggae was a particular favorite). In addition to his niche as hip-hop's foremost global citizen, Clef was also a noted producer and remixer who worked with an impressive array of pop, R&B, and hip-hop talent, including Whitney Houston, Santana, and Destiny's Child, among many others. |
Wyclef Jean Bio |
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The
son of a minister, Nelust Wyclef Jean was born in Croix-des-Bouquets,
Haiti, on October 17, 1972. When he was nine, his family moved to the
Marlborough projects in Brooklyn, NY; by his teenage years, Jean had moved
to New Jersey, taken up the guitar, and begun studying
jazz through his
high school's music department. In 1987, he also joined a rap group with
his cousin Prakazrel Michel (aka Pras) and Michel's high-school classmate
Lauryn Hill. Initially calling themselves the Tranzlator Crew, they
evolved into the Fugees, a name taken from slang for Haitian refugees. The
trio signed with Ruffhouse Records in 1993 and released their debut album,
Blunted on Reality, the following year; it attracted little notice, thanks
to an inappropriate hardcore stance that the group wore like an
ill-fitting suit. But the Fugees hit their stride on the follow-up, The
Score, ignoring popular trends and crafting an eclectic, bohemian
masterpiece that sounded like nothing else on the hip-hop landscape in
1996. Thanks to hit singles like "Fu-Gee-La" and "Killing
Me Softly," The Score became a chart-topping phenomenon; in fact,
with sales of over six million copies, it still ranks as one of the
biggest-selling rap albums of all time. Wyclef Jean was the first Fugee to declare plans for a solo project, setting to work soon after the group completed its supporting tours. Released in the summer of 1997, The Carnival (full title: Wyclef Jean Presents the Carnival Featuring the Refugee All-Stars) was even more musically ambitious than The Score. Its roster of guests included not only the remainder of the Fugees, but also Jean's siblings (who performed together in the duo Melky Sedeck), Cuban legend Celia Cruz, New Orleans funk mainstays the Neville Brothers, and Bob Marley's female backing vocalists the I Threes. The breadth of his ambition was further in evidence on the album's two hit singles; "We Trying to Stay Alive" recast the Bee Gees' signature disco tune as a ghetto empowerment anthem, and the Grammy-nominated "Gone Till November" was recorded with part of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. Those two songs helped push The Carnival into a Top 20, triple-platinum showing, and most reviews were naturally quite positive. |
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