The 53-year Haitian-born artist Wyclef Jean rose to popularity in the early and mid-1990s as a founding member of the hip-hop group The Fugees.
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With his cousin Pras and friend Lauryn Hill, the three became famous thanks to songs like “Vocab” and “Ready or Not.” With Wyclef as the person driving the group, Pras holding down the low end with his voice and Hill as the dynamic talent, the group shined.
As the years passed, Wyclef endeavored on a successful solo career and has helped break many an artist along the way. With all that experience, one might wonder what Wyclef has to say about his career, the business, life and the world around him.
Here are the best 20 Wyclef Jean quotes.
1. “At the end of the day, just know that God made you, so you can be your own individual, and don’t let people give you that peer pressure.”
2. “I lived in the projects and the ghetto, and turned the negative into a positive.”
3. “I like to go against the grain, against what’s out there. Every day is like a challenge.”
4. “I’m most comfortable when you just give me a guitar and I just sing.”
5. “I’m cheap, and I’m proud of it!”
6. “I know that the nice shine 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.”
7. “You get quick money, it’s beautiful, there’s sunshine, but at the end of the day, you find out it’s all a masquerade, baby. It’s not what it seems.”
8. “That’s the best way to feed the human mind. That’s how Bob Marley did it. He never put it in your face. After you got the groove, you were just singing the hooks, because you thought it was cool.”
9. “I want people to experience what it’s like being from Haiti, coming to America, being Wyclef—multicultural, multilingual.”
10. “I’m like a hippie. At the end of the day, that’s what my voice caters to.”
11. “Every generation is gonna keep changing, and you just have to embrace the change.”
12. “I lived in a hut with no roof, and I rode to school on a donkey. I used to shoot birds with a slingshot to cook for dinner. Now I prefer to get my food from KFC.”
13. “Me and my father went through a war period where we wasn’t talking. He wanted me to go to theology school—I didn’t want to go. I wanted to do music. I told him I was a minister through music.”
14. “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.”
15. “I was a jazz major in high school, in an all-jazz band. No matter what I do, it features my musical influences.”
16. “I feel that life is short, so we should be disciplined, but at the same time we should have a good time.”
17. “Coming from Haiti and growing up in Brooklyn, there’s a lot of European influence when I get dressed up. I wear a lot of fitted suits, elegant cuts; I think it’s cool to mash up a lot of different looks.”
18. “I want to be part of a different kind of celebrity, one that thinks not just about charity but policy.”
19. “What I learned from people like Carlos Santana is that you cannot get too happy after working for five years in the industry. It takes years and years, and I learned to keep a straight head and keep on working harder and harder.”
20. “As a producer, I always want to know what makes the kids tick.”
Photo by Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images for CORE
