Genres: Seasonal,Rap/Hip Hop,Soundtracks,Pop,Soul/R&B

This Haitian born musician has shown many different sides to himself. This award winning musician/actor has shown that he can do it all. Whether he is producing, rapping, writing or acting, Wyclef Jean has shown that he is very multi faceted.

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Wyclef Jean

"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."

This Haitian born musician has shown many different sides to himself. This award winning musician/actor has shown that he can do it all. Whether he is producing, rapping, writing or acting, Wyclef Jean has shown that he is very multi faceted.

Haitian at Heart

Born in Haiti in October of 1972, Neluset Wyclef Jean moved from his home to America at the age of 13. They moved once more from Brooklyn to northern New Jersey where they stayed put. His father was a Nazarene pastor, this led Wyclef Jean to attend Eastern Nazarene College briefly. His younger brother Sam went to the same college and got a degree in history.

In the mid 1990s, he found musical success with the start of his three member group. The Fugees name came from The Refugee Camp. In the group was Lauryn Hill, as well as Prakazrel Michael or Pras, and of course, Wyclef. Pras was a fellow Haitian and the cousin of Wyclef. They signed with label Ruffhouse Records, from there they released their debut album entitled Blunted on Reality, on the U.S. Hot 100, the album peaked only to #49 and sold two million copies internationally. Their follow up album, The Score, did much better, selling nearly twenty million and over time becoming an award winning multi platinum album.

Going Solo

In 1997, Wyclef Jean announced that he was planning on going solo. Starting off his solo career was the album Wyclef Jean Presents the Carnival Featuring the Refugee All-Stars. In the album, his former band mates made appearances as well as his siblings and the I Threes. From the album he had two singles. We Trying to Stay Alive as well as Gone Till November helped the album to become a success.

In 2000, he released his second solo album, The Ecleftic: 2 Sides II a Book. This album also included several guests, such as Mary J. Blige, Kenny Rogers, Earth Wind & Fire, Youssou N'Dour and even The Rock. His song with Mary J. Blige, 911 became nominated for Best Hip Hop Act for the MTV Europe Music Awards.

For the next three years, he came out with three albums. His album released in 2004, Sake Pase Presents: Welcome to Haiti (Creole 101) was done almost entirely in Haitian Creole, his native tongue.

Continued Success

From the years 2004 to 2006, he and his cousin attempted to get their old group back together. Although they considered the idea of a new album it never came. According to Pas, Lauryn Hill was not on board like the cousins were. This left her to go her own separate ways from the cousins and The Fugees done for good.

In September of 2007, Wyclef Jean released yet another album. On this album, he once again collaborated with a slew of musicians. He found himself in the company with the likes of T.I. will.iam, Akon, Lil Wayne as well as Niia. In addition to collaborating on his album, he also collaborated with several other stars on their albums. On the Aventura album, he and Ludacris were featured on the single Spanish Fly. It was announced in the summer of 2009 that he would be releasing another album, wyclefjean due out in February of 2010.

While working on his upcoming album, he released an EP entitled From the Hut, to the Projects, to the Mansion in November of 2009. On this EP there are several more collaborations with Timbaland, Cyndi Lauper as well as Lil Kim just to name a few. This EP quickly became a success with free mp3 downloads.

Mortgage Crises

In November of 2008, Wyclef Jean's waterfront mansion became the property of the bank. He took a two million mortgage out on his home so that he could renovate it. Unfortunately, he fell behind on payments. Reports say that the home was auctioned in December 2008. According to Wyclef Jean the sale never happened and he is planning on selling his home.

Charity

Wyclef Jean never forgets where he came from. In 2005, he set up the Yele Haiti Foundation. With it, he was able to provide nearly four thousand scholarships to the youth that were affected by Hurricane Jeanne. Speculation on how the charity was spent came about when the tax forms were not filed until 2009. Eventually, the charities were dissolved by the Florida Division of Corporations.

Also in 2009, he got together with the Timberland Company to help to raise environmental awareness for Haiti. He used popular social media outlets such as Twitter and Myspace to spread the word about his work.

Since the devastating earthquake in 2010, he participated in a major telethon to raise money.

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