Interview with Launch.com #2

From the Fugees to his successful solo career, from The Carnival to the Masquerade, Wyclef Jean has touched a musical nerve with stirring tunes like "Gone Till November" and the recent hit "Two Wrongs." His latest effort, Masquerade, is perhaps his most ambitious and eclectic offering yet: He covers songs by Tom Jones (who makes a guest appearance!), Bob Dylan, and Frankie Valli, but also includes cameos by hardcore rappers like M.O.P. for a more streetwise vibe than his previous poppier outings. And somehow, it works, in a way that only 'Clef can pull off.

Launch's Dave DiMartino recently met with Wyclef at the soul-searching artist's own New York studio to discuss the vision, scope, and inspirations behind Masquerade. DiMartino found out, not surprisingly, that 'Clef already has a vision for his next album, but what's perhaps more unexpected is Wyclef's admission that he wouldn't mind working with his ex-Fugees again in the future. Get the scoop here:

Launch: Can you please tell me a little bit about the specifically the intro on your new album, Masquerade?

Wyclef: Yeah, the kid that you hear speaking...it's almost like I'm talking in two different forms: I'm speaking as Wyclef the adult, and then as Wyclef the young man. When I was in the projects, much younger, there was an O.G.--we called them "Original Gangsters"--and that's the advice he gave me when I was on the corner. He was basically like, "There are two roads: You could either go right or you could go left. The right track takes much longer--it gets dark, and it looks like it won't be successful--but if you can survive the wave, you'll be all right. On the left path, you get quick money, it's beautiful, there's sunshine, but at the end of the day, you find out it's all a masquerade, baby. It's not what it seems." So that's the whole vibe of the intro.

Launch: If you wanted to compare the message between this record and your first solo record, what would be the major difference?

Wyclef: This is the first album where I'm explaining the accomplishments of Wyclef and what he accomplished and where he came from. So prior to this album, I never gave you the biography of saying, "You know what? The 'Clef that you all think is the Wyclef Jean is actually this young kid from Haiti who grew up in Marlboro Projects. And this is how he grew up--slimy, grimy, around the dealers on the block--and this is how he got up out of it." So this album right here is sort of my maze through the projects, and how I got out and became this conscious person. You know what I'm saying?

Launch: There are different styles of rapping throughout the album--did you do that for a reason?

Wyclef: Yeah, I think in the same way that I try to elevate my guitar playing, my songwriting. I used to rap much more when I was much younger--you're on the block, you battling, you're freestyling. I felt like in the past three or four years like after The Carnival, it felt like my rapping chops went down a little bit, because I was more concentrating on the writing and the producing, so it's like going to the Olympics: I felt like I was a good rapper, but lyrically I could have been better, so I really took my time to set up my game and elevate my lyrics to a whole other level for my hip-hop fans. I wanted the lyrics to take back there and display that--don't forget, 'Clef has many styles.

Launch: So was this an attempt to capture back the real hardcore rap fans?

Wyclef: Definitely. When I did Ecleftic, which was a multicultural album, the effort for that was to show that Wyclef could do a Pink Floyd cover and still have a street beat in the background. This one is definitely is saying, "I want to take you back to the original format of where I'm from; you all know I can play the guitar, you all know I can sing, but what you all forgot is these are all the beats that I come from." So it was important to me to go back to the grungy, because all of a sudden you get excited again, 'cause there's another whole dimension of 'Clef that you wasn't expecting to hear.

Launch: How did you cope with your father passing away recently?

Wyclef: The way that it affects me...you know, I'm the first son. Being in the studio and then getting a call like, "Yo, your dad ain't go no pulse, he's in the ambulance." So I get in the car and I'm driving down, and water starts flowing out of my eyes. You know, I'm not really sure if he passed, but then I understood right there that there's a connection. You never really know how you come to the earth, it's really a mystery, and when you leave, it's sort of a mystery too--but somehow, whoever you're a part of, you have a natural connection with them, and if you tune in, you can tell if they're still here or they're not. So I felt like he'd passed, and I got to the hospital and then the doctor said the worst stuff you can hear--basically, "We did all we can." And it's like, you can't believe it. 'Cause you like, "Whoa, I was just on the phone with this guy. You did all you can? What does that mean? Where he at? 'Cause maybe I can talk to him. Did you use all the machines and stuff?" The hardest thing was actually bringing the news back home to my mother and my little sister, who was 16. You know ,right now I'm trying to help my sister with her school situation, 'cause she's real smart. Besides me, my other brother's a lawyer...my parents stressed education a lot, but I feel like after the passing of my dad, it really affected her, you know. So it's like I have to step up and be a bigger man than I was before my dad passed.

Launch: How did that experience affect the new record?

Wyclef: I think on the new record you get a concentrated 'Clef, it sort of like you get like 12 songs within a conversation of 30 minutes. It takes you through the rollercoasters and the emotions of life. You know what I'm saying?

Launch: What does the rest of your family think about the track "Daddy"?

Wyclef: The track "Daddy" is basically strength for us--I wrote it for my mom, my brother, my sisters, to show them that even though my dad passed, all they got to do is look at me. It's sort of like looking at my dad--I got the same habit. When they heard it, it gave them all a sense of strength.

Launch: What did your father enjoy most about your music?

Wyclef: Well, my father is a minister, and it was hard in the beginning: coming from Haiti, coming to Brooklyn. I mean, growing up in the projects, and you're looking at your dad, and he's like, "I brought you from Haiti; this is America, the land of opportunities. What do you want to do with your life now?" I couldn't look at my dad and say I wanted to be a rapper--that just wouldn't fly well in the environment I was living in. And being that he was a minister, what he did, 'cause he had a church, was he bought a bunch of instruments and he put them in the room. I remember he went to Toys 'R' Us and he got the drums, the horns, the guitars, everything--it was around Christmas time, and we all flooded the room, me, my brother, my sister, and we just jumped on the instruments, just started banging them, making so much noise that night, and we never left those instruments ever since. And his whole dream was for us to play in the church, like to be the church band, and boy, were we his band! You come to our father's church, we would be playing, rocking that place upside-down. So he wanted us always to stay in that realm, and do education. But I sort of like drifted, 'cause I grew up with a lot of street cats, so hip-hop was one of my loves. I drifted into the hip-hop, and wasn't having any of that [church] stuff at all. My dad didn't want to hear that you was going into the studio--you came back late at night and he didn't understand that, that theory didn't exist in his mind. Then we had all-out war was when it was time for college. And he was like, "You're going to theology school," but man, 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. And then when I got kicked out, I moved into my father's sister's house in Long Island and I went to Firetown College, and he started talking to me a week later. He was like, "You all right? Everything's OK?" And then he never comes to my shows. And then a year before he passed I was like, "Yo, Dad, I know you never come to my shows 'cause you're not into the street-style music, but you have to come tonight, I'm playing Carnegie Hall." And he's like, "Carnegie Hall, what's that stuff? I don't know about this kind of stuff." And I'm like, "It's a prestigious hall, all these kinds of people are going to be there. It's not just hip-hop; it's classical, every form of music." I didn't even think he was going to show up. Stevie Wonder, Eric Clapton, everybody was there, but when I got on the stage and I looked at the balcony and I saw this man with the beard and stuff, I just stopped the show. I was like, "Yo, my dad is here!" It was the coolest thing. Those are the memories that keep the smile on my face.

Launch: On Masquerade, you had some guests come in. Tell me about that.

Wyclef: Well, I'm from the Fugees, so I always have a producer to the side of me, and I never want to do a record by myself. I'm always thinking, "Who can I put on this record, how can it be hotter?" So on this record, I wanted it to be hip-hop but with the 'Clef style of "flip it left" at times. So, I would say the leftest track we have on that joint is "What's New Pussycat?" with Tom Jones--we did the 2002 version of that. Besides that, my sister, my sister is singing a hook--we did [Frankie Valli's] "Oh What A Night" A lot of people were like, "'Oh What A Night'--what do you know about that?" I always tell them that when we was younger we would clean bathrooms with my father in a hotel, and the cover bands that was playing at the Ramada Inn they would be playing all these songs, but when "Oh What A Night" would come on, me and my brother forgot we were cleaning bathrooms--we would grab a plunger and do our own karaoke in the bathroom. We just dropped some very honest lyrics about where we come from and what's going on. We also have M.O.P., a very hardcore street band that I love, and Freddie Foxxx, also a very hardcore underground MC--I was on tour with him on Smoking Grooves. There's a bunch of new kids, like Governor on a song called "The PJ's." You hear a "woo!" and it sounds like a Marvin Gaye sample--that's this new kid Governor, he sounds just like Marvin Gaye. And he's like only 23. We have another kid, Prolific. And the kid who's rhyming in the intro, that's my godson--my cousin. He's only 7 years old, a straight-A student, and he's rapping, "I'm only 8, I got no choice but to sling crack." And he does the record and he brings it to his mom: "Hey, I'm on Uncle 'Clef's album, listen to this!" And then his mom hears, "I'm only 8, I got no choice but to sling crack." She called me: What do you got my kid doing" I said, "Nah, he's an actor he's just playing the part!" But it was really cute, definitely.

Launch: Tell me about switching the title of your single "Two Wrongs" from "One Last Chance."

Wyclef: Well, "Two Wrongs" featuring Claudette from City High...I didn't know what I wanted to call it. My songs are really never titled. Sometimes I call it one thing. then I change it. I had called it "One Last Chance," but the reason I changed it is a friend of mine got arrested 'cause he hit his girl, and then he went and got her a ring, went by her house and brought her the ring, and he asked her to marry her. And he called me on my cell, and I'm like, "You stupid man, she put you in prison, I went in and bailed you out, and you gonna go marry her?" And he was like, "Two wrongs don't make a right, man." And I said, "Man, that's the title of my song." So I take no credit for that, man.

Launch: Are you tired of people talking about a Fugees reunion?

Wyclef: No, I don't mind talking about the Fugees at all.

Launch: I was wondering what your take is on Lauryn Hill's recent Unplugged album.

Wyclef: I think Lauryn's music is just a reflection of how she feels in her mind, a state of mind of whatever she's in. And me knowing her since she was like 14, I could see like, "She's happy, this is what it's going to be. If she's in a spiritual mode, this is what this is going to be." If she wants to flip some hip-hop on you, she's going to kill you with some hip-hop, but I think this is more where she's at right now. I think that maybe the reason she's like this is probably everything that she's been through and seen, and she probably wanted to be real intimate with her guitar and her lyrics and stuff.

Launch: That seems different from the direction your music is going in.

Wyclef: I'm like Cab Calloway: I love the entertainment, and I've loved entertaining people ever since I was little. I'm just a different breed. I love to show off in front of women. That's just the natural breed that I am. I love to show up at a party when there's nobody on the dance floor and get the party started, hijack the DJ, change the music. I'm sort of like a people's person. I always want to know what's wrong with you, why you ain't smiling. That's just my character; I just love people and want to see people having a good time. I feel that life is short, so we should be disciplined, but at the same time we should have a good time. So I'm just a different breed.

Launch: You've all grown since the last Fugees record--if there were to be a reunion, would you expect it to have the same energy?

Wyclef: I think definitely everybody grew as artists, and I think that it would be harder now to go into the studio 'cause I'm "Mr. Cab Calloway," you know what I'm saying? And I would want all of the music to sound one way, and Lauryn would want it another way, and Pras would probably want to come and just start dancing on the record. But you know, if somewhere in time and somewhere in space--'cause I believe in time and space, and I believe in that whatever will be, will be--I mean, man, I would love to go into the studio with Pras and Lauryn and just do music with them. I grew up with them. I love Lauryn's style--that's what turned me on about her, her whole music vibe. Pras got the charisma to him, and I would love that. But life goes on, you know what I'm saying?

Launch: You talk about time and space--do you get inspiration for your material from your real-life traveling adventures?

Wyclef: On all my records, I just write about what people are going through, so when I go through the airport, I'm going through what you're going through. So I write it just like we go through it. And being a New Yorker, you get there and you take your sneakers off, you're cooperating, but man, that line be long! I mean, you do definitely want to be safe, but at the same time, it annoys you sometimes, 'cause you just want to get to where you want to get to. Never in my mind did I imagine that it would be like this, and a lot of people are afraid to fly. And on my CD Masquerade, the song "War No More" is just a joint that you could put on and laugh about the whole thing.

Launch: You're kind of all over the place on this record--in a good way. In the back of your head, is there a direction you know where you want to go for the next album?

Wyclef: I already have the brand-new record. It's called The Carnival II. When you're in the Caribbean, you're having the best time, you're hearing a lot of beats and rhythms that you don't hear in New York sometimes, 'cause then you come back and it's snowing. So when I did the album The Carnival, which had Creole music on it, it was very well-received, critically acclaimed. So there's a series of albums that I want to do, 'cause Quincy Jones is sort of like my idol, Carnival is like one of those albums--sort of like you'll get Carnival I, Carnival II, Carnival III, Carnival IV. Carnival II is a continuation of The Carnival; if you'll remember, I was like, "Yo, all my players chillin', sipping piña coladas, if you got your pass you can come with me to the carnival." So Carnival II will be a multicultural album, like the Caribbean side of Wyclef, the Haitian side of Wyclef. So if it's 16 songs, eight songs will be in my native tongue with my native rhythms, and the other eight will be in English. And with the eight that will be in English, you're still going to get the rhythms of the islands. The rhythm is called compa. The song that we just recorded is called "Everybody Do The Compa." Remember how you had the big dances like the macarena, the cha-cha? Well, the one that comes from my country is called the compa, and I'm explaining how you do the dance, how you hold the girl, how you go around. I like to shift all the time, so the next one will be a worldbeat, multicultural album, because my culture is very important to me.

Interview conducted by Dave DiMartino @ Launch.com