Five Fits With: Fugees Founder and Legendary Musician Wyclef Jean

There probably isn’t a generation alive unfamiliar with seven-time platinum and three-time Grammy Award-winner Wyclef Jean, the legendary founder of The Fugees who went on to a huge solo career that's spanned nine albums and 78 million records sold. What you might not know is that in addition to being a producer and musical virtuoso, he scores the hit Showtime series, The Chi, heads a source music library and jingle company called Sodo Mood Labs, and recently launched his own electric vehicle company called Attucks. Wyclef is also currently on tour with Lauryn Hill and Pras for the 22-city, Miseducation of Lauryn Hill/The Fugees Reunion Tour.

Instead of continuing to list his accolades—because I could keep going—I’ll leave you with our conversation, which only begins to scratch the surface of Wyclef’s depth. Below, we discuss the influence Brooklyn, Haiti, and Africa have on Wyclef, the challenges The Fugees faced coming up in the music industry, the impact Busta Rhymes had on his style, and plenty more.

Fit One

You've been making music since the '80s. How do you continue to find inspiration to write new music?

My role model was Quincy Jones. Coming up in the game, I wanted to be a composer. My passion for music is discovery, so I'm always excited when I can discover something. In 1990, I dropped my first album before The Fugees. And guess what? It was house music, Easy Streets Records, AfriCali. I remember it clearly. This is when Nelson Mandela was coming out of prison. Now think about it, today you got Amapiano, which sounds like house music, just to give you an example. I would say that's really the passion and the energy for me, the everyday. I'm forever a student.

You just touched on it a little bit, but how did you find your way to music as a career path?

Coming from Haiti and extreme poverty, then landing in Brooklyn, in the Marlborough Projects in Coney Island, and after that, moving to Flatbush. My father had a church on Church Avenue. Man, I ain't going to lie to you. Growing up was crazy because a lot of my friends ain't here no more. They're in prison. Some are deported. One of my cousins got shot dead in front of Erasmus High School. For me, music was a safe haven. When my gamer friends were going to the arcades and they were like, "What are you going to do?" I was like, "I'm going to try to play this guitar," or whatever instrument next came from the church. I think that it was a distraction for me, but a passion, the same way my boys would go to the court and play ball. I was just constantly trying to figure out who the next composer was. After Quincy Jones, I got into [George] Gershwin, so I was always deep into the sense of music.

Fit Two

What sorts of challenges did you and The Fugees face on the rise, and how has the music industry changed today?

Fugees is short for refugees. First album's called Blunted on Reality. It went copper. I think I bought a copy, Lauren's mama bought a copy, her dad, and I think my father, God bless the day, might have bought a copy. Now, this is the first album and the group is called Refugees. Thirty years later, Young Thug—free the slime—his song is called "Wyclef Jean." He's only 25 years old. Where does this bridge come in? It's because whenever you're doing something that's light years ahead, the only people that's going to get it is the kids that ain't born yet. You got to understand The Fugees is nostalgic, but The Score could come out in 1996 or it could come out today, and it's going to get the same reaction. I think that that's from the place of passion. The challenge that we face, and we want all of the youth to understand, is whenever you're going to do something that has not been done yet, people are going to start off by saying, "What is this? It's whack. It ain't going to work." This is when you know you’re onto something.

Fit Three

How much of an impact does Haiti have on your style?

When we talk about how much of an impact Haiti has on my style, I think that we also have to talk on the impact how much does Africa have on my style. I did my DNA test, which is pretty accurate. I’m over 50 percent Nigerian. That makes sense. I would say for me, the part of history that I got with Haiti that will forever change my life was that this is the first Black republic. Toussaint Louverture, first Black general. That's like saying the first Black coach. I thought, "I come from this place where it's the first, so I can't do anything where I'm going to be the second or the third." My role models are freaking Toussaint Louverture, Jean-Jacques Dessalines, [Dutty] Boukman, King [Henri] Christophe, the woman who knitted the Haitian flag, Catherine Flon. So, in saying that, the influence that Haiti has on me, through way of Africa, is letting me know, "Look, you guys were the first, at the end of the day, you guys defied the idea of slavery. It's either we going to be free or we going to die." This is how I approach everything—either we going to do it or we not. I don't have no middle ground. Haiti taught me to not follow what anybody else is doing.

Fit Four

How have you honed your personal style over the years?

You could watch from the beginning with The Fugees at the Apollo Theater. I was laughing with my compadre, Busta Rhymes, the other day. We are both doing the same show, we're at Global Citizen, and I'm wearing what I think it was one of the last pieces by Virgil [Abloh], this long blue coat. Then I got the big red hat. Busta walked in and I'm like, "Bus, man, you are the reason I could dress like this and get away with it." Busta, to me, is one of the craziest fashion style icons. Getting into hip-hop, even when you look at it back then, our style was always mixed. Because we were watching what was going on. And then The Fugees got a chance to travel with the first album. We was going to London, we was going to Germany, we was going to Milan. We was close to Giorgio Armani at the time, so we got a sense. When we came back to New York, we always would mix it with the European and different things that we was learning.

Do you separate your style on- and off-stage?

When I'm in the studio and I'm creating, I like to be comfortable. If it was up to me, I would just be in underwear in the studio, even though I do that sometimes with a spliff in my mouth, like Fela Kuti. I like a robe, I like joggers. I like to be super, super comfortable. On stage, Clark Kent now turns into Superman. When it comes to the stage, I like to give people things that they're going to remember. I grew up watching Michael Jackson and James Brown and all of that. On stage, I think we may be one of the last bands that really believe in theatrics and the clothes and the gear and all that stuff goes with the performance.

Fit Five

Outside of music, what are some of your interests or other ventures?

There are a few ventures that I'm very excited about. One of them is I will be opening up the first WJ Carnival. It's an immersive restaurant performance space. I got a chance to talk to the late and great Jimmy Buffett before he passed away; he actually came to my show at the Surf Lodge. He heard I was playing, and he's a big fan. I told him about little concept I was working on. Very excited about that, because I felt like I could provide a new form of residency for artists through an immersive experience. And what I like about the model is, it works with artists that nobody knows yet, to fully established artists, to artists that are nostalgic. You already know the food is going to be crazy. Caribbean Haitian cuisine.

I’m also excited about Nigeria, going back to where my DNA is. Right now, we also have a project on the table we're very excited about. I want you to think, What if Silicon Valley can meet Universal Studios? We feel that with the explosion of Nollywood going on in Nigeria. We feel that we're in a position now where I'm excited in what a new city can look like. The last thing is the prospect of the future of Haiti. A lot of people think, "What the hell's going on in Haiti, man?" Look, I'm going to tell you this. Follow @LunionSuite. There are a bunch of young kids, from Gen Z on up. I don't think the founders are more than 23 or 24. I've known them since they were kids. I always say, Haiti's worst part is the PR. When we talking about Jamaica, we'd be like Ocho Rios, Montego... We actually could differentiate parts. When we say Haiti, we be like, "They just kidnapped someone." Despite of the mayhem that may be going on in the capital of Port-au-Prince, a lot of amazing things are going on outside of the capital, which we're excited about. The prospect of people flying into Okap, the countryside. Haiti's going to have an amazing future. If I could be part of bringing the Punta Cana to my country. After my experience politically with running for president, I figured something out. Haiti needs job creation and a government that's not corrupted.

If you had to pick one outfit to wear for the rest of your life, what would it consist of?

Oh man, that's so cool. It would probably be sandals. Period. Moses sandals, 100 percent. It would definitely be a jogging suit. And then on my right wrist, it would be energy beads, just to balance me out. That's it.

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