Interview with Launch.com #1

Sure, he's been accused of holding an urban music editor at gunpoint over a review by his protégé Canibus, but when Launch recently hooked up with the Fugees' Wyclef Jean during a break in the Smokin' Grooves tour, he appeared absolutely nonviolent and positively pleasant. During the conversation in Atlanta, Wyclef recounted tales of his poverty-stricken childhood in Haiti. The Creole-speaking grandson of a voodoo priest, Wyclef reflected on how he picked up music at age 11, starting playing guitar at 13, and even used rap music to hone his English-speaking skills.

"Gone 'Til November" "We Trying To Stay Alive" "Mona Lisa" (withthe Neville Bros.) Wyclef's current solo album, The Carnival, features a pastiche of influences and styles, as he is eager to dispel the stereotypes that come with urban music. "I know people who are into country music who listen to The Carnival," he claims. The album contains the Grammy-nominated song "Gone 'Til November," which features a 62-piece orchestral score written and conducted by Wyclef himself. Not bad for a 27-year-old, self-described "nappy-headed, dreadlock guy with a gold chain."

Launch: So, Wyclef, you have a very interesting background and it informs a lot of your music. Can you tell me where you get your inspiration?

Wyclef: Basically, my whole strength comes from my upbringing. I'm from a real poor family. I grew up in Haiti. My great grandfather is from Cuba. You have the dark skin shades and the mulattos in my family. I have a brother and some cousins that just look white. I grew up with the dark skin side of my family in poverty, in the ghetto. There was a lot of voodoo going on at the time. My grandfather was a voodoo priest. A lot of my life dealt with spirituality. I can close my eyes and remember where I come from. [Lapsing into a chant] "Vanity, vanity, all is vanity." I know that the nice shines I have on is going to pass. The nice cars will pass. All that will stay is the music and the work. That's where I get the inspiration to help people out and work.

Launch: When did you decide to become an artist? What motivates you?

Wyclef: I do music for the love of it, and I've been doing it from a very young age: about 11. But it was important that I became successful. People say they do it for the love, and yes, you do it for the love, but you want to be successful. My accomplishment has helped millions of kids see that they can come from a poor family and go somewhere, make something out of themselves. I've been doing it for seven years professionally. It's like being in college and being undecided about your major. As soon as you choose your major, you focus in on it. When I decided to "major" in music, I focused on my career in the broad aspect, the business, the management, the production.

Launch: I recently read an article where you spoke of returning to Haiti, and you described it as an incredibly emotional experience. Can you tell me what it was like for you to return to your roots?

Wyclef: Definitely when I got on the plane to go back there it was an emotional thing for me. It definitely touched my heart when I landed. I cried. It was an emotional thing for me. I'm actually one of them if you take everything away. For the kids there to see me, to be real poor, they would come up to me, and they didn't want any money, they just wanted to chill, get an autograph, and to conversate. They seemed to think they'd get more out of that than getting a dollar. To me, that was extraordinary.

Launch: There is a real diversity to your career, and you have produced a lot of different artists.

Wyclef: That's definitely what I'm here for. I'm the hip-hop Quincy Jones of today. That's what I am. I do music, you know what I mean? 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. If I did something for Will Smith vs. something for Canibus, it's two different things. Doing something for Canibus, it keeps me right on the streets--versus "Getting' Jiggy Wit' It," I'd just be getting jiggy wit' it and the core audience wouldn't feel it. I try to bring something different to all the artists I work with.

Launch: Tell me about your solo album, The Carnival. It shows a much different side to you than your work with the Fugees. What were you trying to accomplish with that release?

Wyclef: The Carnival: I put it out a year after [the Fugees'] The Score. I didn't put it out to sell 50 million records. It's a statement: This is who Wyclef really is. But on the work of The Carnival, I can do the work I do today. It established me as an artist, a producer, someone who can do scores for films, who's versatile in their musical capabilities. I don't want people to say, "That's that 'one time' guy. That 'Killing Me Softly' guy."

Launch: Versatility seems to be what drives you creatively. Do you think hip-hop could use more versatility from its artists?

Wyclef: What I'm trying to do is break the genre from what is rap and what is music. I know country people who have The Carnival. Automatically when you say rap, people think "shoot 'em up, bang bang." When you pick up The Carnival, you get the big genre. It's more than "the hip-hop the hibbie." Rap records don't make you feel good no more. Six months after release, it can't come back as a classic. Any Slick Rick record, old LL Cool J records, make you feel good. But from our artists, and our genre, you can't say you can put something on in 20 years and it will make you feel good. Of course, you have your classics, like [Snoop Dogg's] "Gin & Juice." Now that's a statement record.

Launch: In looking at your songs, I see you don't use as much of the derogatory or sexist language that is really popular in rap today. It seems like so many artists are just out to shock the audience with outrageous or sexual lyrics.

Wyclef: I just grew up differently than a lot of those artists. I didn't grow up to call a woman a ho. That's just how I was brought up. I won't call a girl a bitch, unless she wants me to call her a bitch. Some girls get turned on by being called a bitch. I wouldn't just walk down the street and say, "Yo, bitch!" I think it's all in the tone and how you use it lyrically. Vocabulary is however you choose to use it.

Launch: And instrumentation is however you choose to use it too, right? Talk to me about "Gone 'Til November." It's not often you hear an orchestra in hip-hop.

Wyclef: I was a jazz major in high school, in an all-jazz band. No matter what I do, it features my musical influences. I went in to record the Philharmonic. I wrote down the parts, and I was inside the studio with 62 pieces outside the studio. They never saw my face or what I looked like. I could hear them talking: "The composer's a genius." This is what they said before they see me. Then I walk out: "This is your conductor, Wyclef." They were like, "Whoa, how did this nappy-headed dreadlock guy with a gold chain write this music?" I broke the stereotype. Then I picked up the wand and conducted, using my hip-hop vibe. Right there was an experience for me and for them. We are living in a new millennium, a new era. Hip-hop and string instrumentation was brought together in the song "Gone 'Til November."

Launch: Tell me about your sister, Rose. I understand she's contributed to some of your songs and that you use her as a sounding board regarding your work.

Wyclef: Yeah, she's like me when I was young, I guess. Only thing is she gets everything she wants, so she's spoiled. She liked The Score, felt it was good. She liked No Way Out better, which was Puff Daddy. She was ready to go to camp, she was packing. She said, "Alright, 'Clef, send me 25 No Way Out CDs so I can give them to my friends, and send me about 10 of The Carnival." I was like "Jesus, I'm your brother, aren't you going to promote me?" Then she gave me the whole critique: "We don't want to be sad, just send me Puffy." She was right. At times, being older, you think: "Why is Puffy taking every loop?" But then you have to stand back and see the collective of what everyone is doing. That's what keeps it special and keeps it right. What Puffy's doing, Wu-Tang. It's a circle. That's what keeps it interesting. Rose definitely has an ear. She likes Santana. She'll say "'Clef, this is wack." Or, "This is good." I have a new maxi-single out, "To All The Girls I Cheated On." She gave me the idea of doing three different mixes. The video clip has all three versions in one. Go Rose! But she wants publishing now. She helped me write a song for Mya recently. She said, "'Clef, you better have my publishing check." She's sharp, man.

Launch: In talking to you I get the impression that you are very down-to-earth. Someone in your position could tend to be very arrogant.

Wyclef: There's nothing to be arrogant about. I'm not trying to impress anyone. I'm just trying to do music for people who go to work and hate their boss. Or people who hate to work at Burger King. Or bosses who are tired of their employees. It's called doing music for everyone. It's feelgood music. When I lose touch with the audience and the reality of what life really is, I'll be Vanilla Ice or something.

Launch: Since you mentioned Burger King, I have to ask this question. You worked at BK for a while, right? What did you get out of that experience?

Wyclef: Well, I learned that you can't eat and work at the same time or you'll get fired...The managers, they need to talk to their employees a little better. They don't respect you, they act like you don't have a future. When I worked at BK, I also learned that hygiene is very important when you're serving food. When I'm rhyming it's all in my head. I used to treat that place like a slave plant. Like the slaves, when they were picking cotton, they would block out their minds. They would sing "Amazing Grace." I would be writing so many songs in my head while I'm making 30 Whoppers and six fries. That's why it never got me down or whatever. Of course, I got fired because the place got stuck up. The cats walked in and said, "Alright, 'Clef, give me everything behind the counter." I was like, "Don't worry, I'm not pushing no alarms." The next day the manager fired me because he thought it was an inside job that I set up with my cousins.

Launch: Did you?

Wyclef: It's still a mystery. You'll have to wait for my book.

Launch: LL Cool J called you a Bob Marley imposter on his record. How do you feel about that?

Wyclef: I found that to be such a compliment to even be put in the same category. Bob was one of my idols growing up, being that I come from an island like Haiti. Being that Bob's mother was black and his father was white, he was really trying to put people together, rather than separate people. That's what I'm trying to do: Get everyone to live together as one. He made feelgood music, whether you were smoking down or chilling. Like Jimi Hendrix. Even though he did all that crazy stuff. Marvin Gaye, Donnie Hathaway, they're all in that same category.

Launch: What's up next for you musically?

Wyclef: 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. 10 songs of different emotions: Brazilian guitars, rock guitars, crazy stuff. It's going to be hot.

Launch: Will you do some stuff in Creole?

Wyclef: I think it's cool to do stuff in a different language. Basically, I learned English through listening to rap. A lot of people think it's funny. But it's true; I used to try to get the accents, I just wanted to do that. My mother would be like, "What are you doing?" in Creole. When I went to school, I couldn't speak English that well. I remembered the word "love." If someone messed with me, I'd say, "I got no love for you." That's how I learned English. Then I was bilingual. That would be a good way to teach kids English in schools today because kids will focus in on stuff that they like.

Launch: So you learned to speak English from listening to rap. Who were some of your favorite artists when you were growing up?

Wyclef: Back in the days when I was much younger, I used to watch tapes of Earth, Wind & Fire, Parliament, Kool & the Gang, even Cab Calloway. When I came to the States, I thought of those cats.

Launch: Now you're working on some screenplays, right? Tell me about that.

Wyclef: Right now, we're working on a script for my life story and two kids coming from Haiti to America. One turns out to be a musician, one is a gangster. That's all I can say.

Launch: And you're doing a score for Eddie Murphy's upcoming movie, right?

Wyclef: Yeah, it's called Life. It's Eddie Murphy and Martin Lawrence. It's my first score. That's very important for me right now. I'm 27 years old. I'm going to go into Hollywood really arrogant. I'll be breaking a lot of rules. It's going to be hot.

Interview conducted by By Billy Johnson Jr. @ Launch.com