I’ve been wanting to write about this for a long time now and finally I feel like it. There is this great artist whom I find listening to more and more since some years now, almost never getting enough of, even if at one point I am just repeating them songs.
Wyclef Jean – it’s him whom this post is about – is widely known both for his contribution to the Fugees and also in working with artists like Santana, Mary J Blige and lately Shakira. Comming from Haiti, with a reggae background and writing mostly hip-hop songs, he has proved in numerous times to know and be able to produce excellent pieces of music, either by himself or when working with another artist.
Unlike most hip-hop artists / bands, in Wyclef’s songs you can really hear and feel the music, together with some of the most inspired / inspirational lyrics in the industry – and if you find them a little bit strange in writing is, as he confesses, because his first language is still Creole, not English.
After studying guitar and jazz in New York, he formed the Fugees group together with his longtime friend Pras and another classmate, Lauryn Hill. They all ended having a huge success, both as a group and in solo projects.
Wyclef’s first solo album after the breaking up of the Fugees, entitled The Ecleftic, is an amazing album as it was rated by most critics, with an impressive guest line-up by Whitney Houston, Mary J Blige, Kenny Rogers, The Rock and more. And, to top it all, it ends up with an excellent cover of Pink Floyd’s Whish You Were Here. The album combines slow tracks like “911” with dirty hip-hop – in “Thug Angels” -, party songs like “Perfect Gentlemen” and an excellent guitar solo on “Something About Mary“.
I am not going to write much more about Wyclef and his career, instead here are some samples of his works:
- One of his excellent remixes – Another One Bites The Dust from Queen.
- One of his most famous hits – I’ll Be Gone Till November – performed together with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra.
- A song from his Ecleftic album – Da Industry.
- Whitney’s Huston praise to Wyclef Jean in the Dub Plate song.
