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Wyclef Jean
Wyclef Jean performing at a UNAIDS concert.
Background information
Birth name	Neluset Wyclef Jean
Also known as	Wyclef
Born	October 17, 1972 (1972-10-17) (age 35) Croix-des-Bouquets, Haiti
Origin	Newark, New Jersey, United States
Occupation(s)	Musician, singer-songwriter, producer, actor
Instrument(s)	Vocals, guitar, piano, drums
Years active	1987–present
Label(s)	Ruffhouse, Columbia, J, Koch
Associated acts	Fugees
Website	www.wyclef.com

Wyclef Jean (IPA: /ˈwajklɛf ˈʒɑn/) born Nelust Wyclef Jean on October 17, 1972) is a Haitian American musician, actor, producer and former-member of the hip hop trio The Fugees.

Biography

Born in Croix-des-Bouquets, Haiti, he was named Wyclef Jean (pronounced Why-kleff jee ne, not Why-kleff John) by his foster father, a pastor who re-named him after John Wycliffe^[1]. He moved with his family to Brooklyn, New York when he was nine, then to northern New Jersey. Doctors diagnosed Jean with a mild case of cleft palate, and corrected the malformation with a ground breaking procedure using stem cells to minimize the fibrous scarring usually left behind.

Marriage and children

In 1994, he married Haitian-American fashion designer Marie Claudinette Pierre-Jean. Pierre-Jean is a former pre-med student at Montclair State University, New Jersey turned fashion designer. Named after Haitian beauty queen Claudinette Fouchard, Pierre-Jean launched her design collection "Fusha".^[2]

The couple have one daughter, Angelina Claudinelle, whom they adopted from the United States in March 2005 at three days old.^[3] She is half Haitian and half Guyanese. Angelina was not named after their good friend, actress Angelina Jolie. He mentioned on his appearance on the Tyra Banks show that she was named Angelina simply for the fact that she was an angel.

Jean has been a resident of Saddle River, New Jersey, and South Orange, New Jersey.^[4]

Yéle Haiti

In 2005, Jean established the Yéle Haiti foundation. In its first year of operation, the foundation, with funding by Comcel, provided scholarships to 3,600 children in Gonaives after the devastation by Hurricane Jeane. In its second year of operation, it is almost doubling the amount of the scholarships and spreading them throughout Haiti, providing tuition in 5 regions. 6,800 scholarships will be provided to children in Port-au-Prince, Gonaives, Les Cayes, Port-de-Paix and Cap Haitian through Yéle Haiti’s efforts.

Together for Haiti

Created in response to the current food shortages and rioting in Haiti, Together for Haiti is a partnership Wyclef Jean, in cooperation with Yéle Haiti, the UN World Food Programme and the Pan American Development Foundation (PADF). Both a fundraising and awareness campaign, its mission is to provide much needed resources for three crucial programs in Haiti:

• Targeted Food Distribution - Expand WFP’s existing food assistance program for children under five and pregnant women, continue existing school meal programs through summer vacation, and organize voucher-based food distribution of dry food to the neediest families.

• Immediate Employment Creation - Create Labor-intensive employment opportunities that will support of expanding agricultural production, with wages in cash and food.

• Micro-enterprise Grants - Small grants and training for small-scale egg production, vegetable gardens, grain milling, bread production and other related activities.

The partnership was publicly launched on May 20, 2008 at a press event hosted by Wyclef Jean in New York City. www.TogetherForHaiti.org

Musical career

The Fugees signed to Ruffhouse Records, which released the group's debut album, Blunted on Reality. It sold poorly, but follow-up album The Score sold over 18 million copies worldwide. Jean announced plans to begin a solo career with 1997's Wyclef Jean Presents the Carnival Featuring the Refugee All-Stars (generally called The Carnival). The album's guests included Hill and Pras along with Jean's siblings Melky Sedeck and Farel Sedeck Guerschom Jean, the I Threes (back-up vocals for Bob Marley), The Neville Brothers and Celia Cruz. The album was a hit, as were two singles: "We Trying to Stay Alive" (adapted from The Bee Gees' "Stayin' Alive") and "Gone Till November" (recorded with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra).

The Fugees remained in limbo during this time, with the follow-up to The Score being continually postponed as all three members cultivated solo careers.

At the concert Woodstock 1999, Jean paid homage to 1969 Woodstock performer Jimi Hendrix by setting fire to his guitar after playing "The Star Spangled Banner", and burnt his fingers while doing so.^[5]

Jean's second solo album, released in 2000, was The Ecleftic: 2 Sides II a Book. This was recorded with guests including Youssou N'Dour, Earth, Wind & Fire, Kenny Rogers, The Rock and Mary J. Blige. With Blige he released "911" as a single. He was nominated for Best Hip-Hop Act at the 2000 MTV Europe Music Awards.^[6]

Jean's third album, Masquerade, was released in 2002. His fourth album, The Preacher's Son, was released in November 2003 as the follow-up to his first solo album, the Carnival

In 2004, he released his fifth album, entitled Sak Pasé Presents: Welcome to Haïti (Creole 101) (released in the United States by Koch Records). Most of its songs are in his native language of Haitian Creole. He also covered Creedence Clearwater Revival's song "Fortunate Son" for the soundtrack of the 2004 film remake of The Manchurian Candidate and wrote the song Million Voices for the film Hotel Rwanda.

Jean also produced and wrote songs for the soundtrack to Jonathan Demme's 2003 documentary The Agronomist, about the Haitian activist and radio personality Jean Dominique. With Jerry 'Wonder' Duplessis, Jean also composed the score of the documentary Ghosts of Cité Soleil,^[7] in which he appears onscreen speaking by telephone in 2004 to a "chimere" gang-leader and aspiring rapper, Winston "2Pac" Jean.^[8]

During a period between 2004 and 2006 and fueled by a reunion performance in Dave Chappelle's Block Party, it appeared that the Fugees were on track to record a new album, however Fugees member Pras claims to Billboard "To put it nicely, it's dead." He says the root of this animosity is the third member of the group, Lauryn Hill, saying to Billboard, "Me and Clef, we on the same page, but Lauryn [Hill] is in her zone, and I'm fed up with that shit. Here she is, blessed with a gift, with the opportunity to rock and give and she's running on some bulls**t? I'm a fan of Lauryn's but I can't respect that."[1]

Jean announced he would release an album in September 2007 that he recorded in Atlanta, Georgia with the help of T.I.. Recently, Wyclef released a new song called Sweetest Girl (Dollar Bill) featuring Lil' Wayne, Niia and Akon, which references the song C.R.E.A.M. by the Wu-Tang Clan. The chorus was inspired by Wyclef's old Scarberian friend, Iain Brooks who coined the popular phrase "Dolla, Dolla Bills y'all!". Jean met Iain while performing in Toronto in the early 1990s.

Humanitarian efforts

Jean has been active in his support of his native country and created the foundation Yéle Haiti ^[9] to provide humanitarian aid and assistance to Haiti. He describes Yéle as a non-political organization intended to empower the people of Haiti and the Haitian diaspora to rebuild their nation, saying, "The objective of Yéle Haiti is to restore pride and a reason to hope, and for the whole country to regain the deep spirit and strength that is part of our heritage".^{citation needed}. Yele Haiti was created in October 2004 with Wyclef's cousin Jerry 'Wonder' Duplessis and humanitarian experts Sanjay Rawal and Natabara Rollosson. Projects were launched in January of 2005. Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt were present for the first anniversary of the launch in 2006.

In January 2007, Jean became a roving ambassador for Haiti, to help improve its image abroad.^[10]

May 20, 2008 - Yéle Haiti partners with WFP (World Food Programme) the United Nations to launch www.togetherforhaiti.org

Television and film

• Was a musical guest star on Nickelodeon sketch comedy show All That during the 1990s.
• Performed "Sweetest Girl" on Jimmy Kimmel Live
• Performed "President" on the second season of Chappelle's Show.
• In 2001, he appeared in the made-for-television movie Carmen: A Hip Hopera alongside Beyonce and Mos Def, as a fortune teller.
• Performed on the 2003 Source Awards with DJ Khaled
• Appeared for a second time on Chappelle's Show in a parody of Making the Band.
• Appeared on the The Apprentice (US Season 4) in 2005. Did a rap, "Rubble man", with the winning team, Excel, as their reward for winning task five.
• Also in 2005, he played gang leader Marcel Hollis who leads his group on an assault on the station house in the NBC television drama Third Watch.
• In 2004, Jean, Pras and Hill reunited as The Fugees for an event filmed and released in 2006 as Dave Chappelle's Block Party.
• He also starred in Virgin Mobile commercials as himself.^[11] In one commercial, a woman approaches him and tricks him into signing a contract which legally binds them in marriage. She drags him back to her trailer-park home where he is mistreated, forced to work and pleasure his wife. Eventually, he runs away and seeks police assistance, but is instead arrested for violating his contract and ultimately winds up in jail.
• Appeared in 2002 Jamaican gangster film Shottas, released in 2006.
• In 2005, he played the role of a Jamaican drug dealer in the movie Dirty.
• He narrated the movie Full Clip, starring Busta Rhymes, Xzibit, Prodigy of Mobb Deep, Spliff Star, and others.
• He has appeared and performed on the Source Awards with DJ Khaled, with Wyclef and his band and Khaled doing turntables.
• He appears in the documentary film Ghosts of Cité Soleil, released in limited theaters on June 27, 2007.
• In 2005, he appeared in the film "One Last Thing...". His character is a cab driver named Emmett Ducasse. It is implied he is an angel due to being in the main characters "Heaven". Wyclef also has an original track that is the closing credits first song. The song is "Heaven's in New York".
• In December 2007, starred in the four-part MTV exclusive online short-film Americlef^[12]
• On April 26, 2008 he hosted the MTV Australia Awards
• He appeared on a remix of his own track "Bubblegoose" for Chef Aid: The South Park Album, where he sings alongside the main characters of the show.
• May 20, 2008: At the Gansevoort Hotel Wyclef Jean in partnership with the WFP and PADF launched TOGETHER FOR HAITI to address the hunger crisis in HAITI www.togetherforhaiti.org http://think.mtv.com/044FDFFFF009898BA00170098F67D/ members of the American and international television and print media were invited to cover the news UN envoy Jeffrey Sachs introduced Jean. Supermodel Petra Nemcova was on hand to support. A surprise appearance was made by Paul Simon.

http://flickr.com/photos/23548545@N02/2509895520/in/photostream/ http://flickr.com/photos/23548545@N02/2509085561/

• August 25, 2008: Wyclef Jean goes "On The Record" with Greta Van Susteran of FOX News discussing his life and career, political coverage, Obama, McCain, Bush and 9-11.
• Throughout his life,he has worked endlessly to improve the life of those suffering with his same condition (cleft palate). He even changed his artistic name to Wyclef, to emphasize his commitment to the community of affected individuals. With his extraordinary fund "Wyclef Foundation for Cleft Palate Survivors (WFCPS)", he has provided financial support to more than 50,000 children across the globe. His latest project, involves empowering children with knowledge about cleft palate to increase the awareness and importance of a healthy pregnancy, especially during the first 2 trimesters. He also sponsored research in the field in universities in the United States and the Caribbean.

Discography

Main article: Wyclef Jean discography

• The Carnival (with Pras and Lauryn Hill) (Columbia, 1997)
• The Ecleftic: 2 Sides II a Book (Columbia, 2000)
• Masquerade (Columbia, 2002)
• Greatest Hits (Columbia, 2003)
• The Preacher's Son (J, 2003)
• Welcome to Haiti: Creole 101 (Koch, 2004)
• Carnival Vol. II: Memoirs of an Immigrant (Columbia, 2007)

Footnotes

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Wyclef Jean

• Official website
• Yéle Haiti Foundation
• Sak Pasé Records (a record label founded by Wyclef)
• Wyclef Jean on Facebook