329 - Sebastian Maniscalco: How to Create an Authentic Word of Mouth Career

Transcript

This isn't your average business podcast, and he's not your average host. This is The James Altucher Show. Today on The James Altucher Show. Let's talk about that. You're in Haiti for the first 9 years of life. Facts. Facts. You were in Brooklyn. You were basically it's not like everybody who had your background, like, said, oh, okay. I'm gonna be in the worst ghettos possible, and then I'm gonna simply be the biggest rap star on the planet. What's the lead? What made you different? Literally, the job that I loved and was most passionate about was just doing my music. I remember I got fired from Burger King, though. Right? And if anybody What did you do? First of all, remember on the mass on the score, remember I said, I used to work at Burger King, a king taking orders. Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah. So what did I do? I literally was making Whoppers, but at the same time, he caught me singing. And one thing about it is when you're working in these fast food restaurants in our era, you would walk in and they would try to brainwash you with a a video of what you're supposed to do and what not to do. And this video was like the Bible. It's like, welcome to Burger King. When you're making the Whopper, this is how you have to do. Your hands must be clean. Boom, boom, boom, boom. You must have And I wasn't like talking over no sandwich. You feel me? But literally, I'm making my whopper, and then my mind, man, you know, I'm, like, just in Madison Square Garden, and I'm just singing my songs. And dude comes, he's like, what are you doing? What are you doing, Jean? And I'm like, I'm making a whopper. He's like, no. You're singing over the whopper. Is that what you're doing? I'm like, no. I'm not man, bang. Fired. But in my brain, I just had an ending plan. It's not where you start, but where you're going. To fall. Like this is the number one thing about life. Like you about to f**king fall. And so I would think like the number one rule is that you gonna teach me something, teach me survival. That's the first thing. Like, what happens, like, when I fall? You know? And they don't teach that. In fact, they punish you for it. If you get a c, you might not get a job Yeah. Instead of pointing, like, hey, maybe this is what you need to learn better instead of where you're getting the easy a's. Yeah, man. So that's me. We'll we'll talk about that because I I love the education stuff. And and what's the official thing of your kinda Wyclef Goes Back to School? What's the official name of it? Wyclef Goes Back to School volume 1. There'll be so many different, series of that. How did you team up with Fiverr? I love Fiverr. Well, of course, having great, a completely independent female label and management production company helps. They're always up on everything. But for me, what attracted me to Fiverr was Discovery. And I just felt like great talent when I saw what they was doing and the idea because my whole career has been based on, like, analytics that don't exist. You know, like, you basically it's like, who's this? And it's like, oh, there's 4 girls in the room. Oh, yeah. You will? Sing a church song for me. Alright. Then years later, that happened to be Beyonce that was in that room. You know? Like, so for Fiverr for me, just from the idea of a talent aspect, from, visual arts to, because right now the cover of this Goes Back to School mixtape is being done by an artist on Fiverr. Man, I literally think this girl is literally I think she's like a Picasso, like, in a couple of years. Where's she from? Where's, the Maddie? Yes? The girl that's doing the artwork for us from Fiverr. The one that the what's her name? You know where she's from? You know where she's from? Find it. I was just explaining, like, she's like a modern day Picasso. She just takes this Yeah, please. And you know, I so freaking be like people be like, yo, people don't I'd be like, yes. People still love covers. Like, you know, there's people who would still I said, you just have to make it interesting. Yeah. And it has to be a real story. I think once again, there's a passion with that. And and there and so Fiverr finds that. Well, and also, I think the fact that Fiverr is sort of brings so many third world countries into the developing economy by giving people with talent a voice in the US. I can go on Fiverr, and I hire people from Malaysia to do designs for me. Like That's right. You know, it's a way to connect the world. Jay, you gotta tell me when we're ready because Wyclef and I are gonna keep talking about the most amazing things before we get started. I've been recording the whole Really? Yeah. Alright. Keep keep it going. Even this because I like mistakes in the pie. I like the rawness. So got Wyclef Jean here. Wyclef, you've been I've been a fan now for 22 years. I wish I had been a fan for 25 years. But 22 years ago, I first heard the Fugees, one of the greatest rap groups of all time, and I'm not exaggerating when I say that. You've made so many great songs that I've probably played thousands of times over and over. I mean, I just, you're you're I know this is so long ago. I mean, you probably get tired of hearing about this album, but the score as was like a life changing album to me. And that's, again, from, like, 1995 or 96. Yes, sir. And that was your your second album. I just wanna just add in the intro. There's 2 projects you have going on. There's, why Clef goes back to school. You're go you're you're basically mentoring students at colleges, doing a college tour, making a mixtape out of it with the kids that you mentor. And you're also, if I described that correctly, and you're also doing an animation about your childhood with Netflix, which is amazing. Yeah, man. I don't know which one you wanna talk about first, because then we're gonna talk about your whole career, breakdown success, music, the Fujis, everything. Man, it's it's it's go time, baby. You already know. So so for me, thank you, man. It's definitely an honor. And, like I said, they'd be like I said, look look no further for the Cinderella, man. He's right here. You know what I mean? Just, my life has definitely been a fairy tale. But I would definitely start with Wyclef Goes Back to School. And so, my entire life has been based off of discovery and the idea of an era where you had to physically show up to smell the talent in the room and to see what it was going to be, you know? So for me, the Fugees, for example, the original my original group, man. So many record companies passed on us. Right? Not only passing you, passing you after you went gold with your first album. Yeah. Yeah. They they literally they they were sending these A and R's in. And the A and R's was like, well, she's singing. He's playing a guitar and singing. The other dude looked like he should be with Guns N' Roses. But he he what is this? You know what I mean? I remember he was like, fun of an AR guy, in one of your in one of your songs. I actually get the exact song, but you totally, like, dissed on just classic AR. And I think I know the exact guy you're referring to as well, but I won't say his name. Yeah. But for me, like so the idea of the AR I always felt like the AR was the people. Like, the people was the one that did that. So what we did with the idea of like why Clef goes back to school, I said, what if we use the same method? Right? Let's use the same algorithm on how the Fugees got found. How was I able to, work with Destiny Chow and give them literally their first hit. Right? You know, how was I able to do the gone to November, the carnival? You know what's interesting about the score? The score has no stars in it. There's no known names on the score. The score And you each kind of found your own voice in there. That was amazing. It was hard listening to the whole album, it's hard to say this one's the star, these two aren't. Because your all 3 of you went on to massive success, and you had your very unique styles. Yeah. But beyond the 3 of us, the score has a lot of features on it. And who are these people? Like when you hear a record like Cowboys, you know, this is a group called the outsiders. They ended up getting a deal afterwards. Guess who else was on the score? Akon. So as a producer, I'm always looking for not hype, but talent. So while Clef Goes Back to School Volume 1, you're gonna get It's like the reason we call it Back to School, I just went back to the foundation. So the style of production is gonna be like 1996 meets 2018. So it's a sonics revolution. We're putting it together, going into 2019. And similar to the score, you're gonna listen to it and be like, yo, this is crazy. But then I want you to go back and be like, who is this kid? Who is that kid? Who is that kid? Now we're in an era where you can go on a sound cloud, and guess what? You're gonna discover new music and a different way of discovery than is out there. So that's why I'm excited about it. Right. And curated by you, who have sold tens of millions of albums, won Grammys, you know, produced some of the most amazing hits, you know, sung some of the most amazing hits. So instead of being curated by this kind of corporate, you know, entity that does focus groups on what music people like, you're curating the music that you're picking and then developing that talent and mentoring that talent. And what's the role of a mentor in someone becoming great at what they do? I think to your key, like, real curation. Right? Even if a man talk about AI today, right, the brain of it has to come from somewhere. So my idol is Quincy Jones. So that's who I've aspired to be since a kid. When people was listening to Michael Jackson, I'm like, who's doing these records? And then, and then, I fell in love with Gershwin. And then I so I take if anyone goes in my brain and put a AI out of me, you're gonna get Gershwin, Quincy, Barb Marley. Well, that's just Gillen, you know. This is what I I feel like so I I refer I have a very specific word for this, which is idea sex, which is that you take 2 things and you kind of imagine what they look like together. And it seems like your career, if I can just give the ABCs of it, you learned every instrument or almost every instrument when you're a kid. Uh-huh. You learned kind of the theory a little bit later on. Now you yourself are an excellent musician. But then you you pull in jazz and and all this, you know, deep stuff about jazz. Then you pull in, you know, reggae, all this deep stuff from reggae. You pull in all this stuff from from rap and hip hop and and r and b and pop, and you combine them all together. And that's what created this album that no one had ever heard of these things before. And then even later on, when you combine, you know, Saturday Night Fever with your with your, you know, particular style, you always were great at, like, taking well known things, adding your flavor to it, and making it better. Mhmm. It seemed like if I was to capture your style somehow overall, I learn a lot from just that one thing. That's super dope. I mean, Quincy Jones said, see the good music or bad music. So, like, in my brain, my brain never computed, like, this is disco, You know? Or this is, you know, the BG, so it's classified as disco. Right? Then, the devil went down to Georgia. Charlie Daniels, this is classified as country. Then Barb Marley classified as reggae. My brain didn't understand, like, it till today, it don't understand what that means. It just confutes like, man, this sounds dope. You know what I'm saying to you? Yo, let me catch a vibe with this. You know what I mean? It's like an art piece on the wall. You're like, yo, it's an abstract. So music to me is like an abstract painting, and you could just pull from it and just create your own. You know? Yeah. And so you you kind of took elements from things that you loved and then always combine at this point, you were already, you know, a master musician just because you you you had such musicality, learning all these instruments, learning the theory, starting to perform. But then you kind of took everything you loved and say, hey. Let's put our unique spin on it, And then it would become even a bigger hit. Yeah. And then for me, I started off a battle rapper. I was in, I left Haiti, came to Brooklyn, lived in Marlborough Projects, Coney Island. And then I moved to Jersey. And battle rapping, lyrical jousting was a way of survival. So on the block, you know, versus the shoot out, or getting into it with your knuckles, battle rapping was another way that we solved it. So for me, I used to I became like one of the best battle rappers in my era in New Jersey. And the teacher was like, you ain't gonna make a living off of battle rapping. You know what I mean? And here you are. And so so what what describe that for a second. So someone's on the corner. They're bat or they're in a club, and there's a battle rap contest or whatever. And you go in there, and and a lot of this is kind of shown to mainstream, public in the Eminem song 8 Mile where it all, you know, revolves around these battle rap cities in. But you're up against someone who's insulting you. You get a beat, and and you start coming up with, lyrics on the fly to rap against the person. Is it do you have nothing memorized in advance? Is it totally like you're just making it up on the fly? Combination of both. Right? So it's we another term for it too is here's the Wycliffe term for it, Shakespearean jousting. Right? So literally you're jousting with lyrics. And so you have to be witty and be able to outsmart the person. So there's 2 parts to it. 1, of course, is the gift of memorization. Where you literally your bank of memorization is endless. And the second part of it is to be able to look at your opponent and outsmart him on the spot. Like, what's the what's the one where you think of where you're the most proud? Like, I made this up. I had maybe a little bit of alpha memory, but then I saw him. He said this, and I did this. And that was the bet the best memory I have. Well, I think, there's so many of them. So there's something called a scheme, right? So a scheme is where one word can mean 2 things or 3 things. So for example, if you are battling me, and I'm gonna do I said, okay, I'm gonna show you how I got to 21. Just call it 21 scheme. You feel me? So now I'm about to completely blow the crowd away because I'm about to use each word that can mean 2 to 3 things. So you want to hear the 21 scheme? Yeah, yeah. All right. Now I'm the one. I know what you're thinking, me too. But in this game of numbers there could only be a few. I'm the trinity. Now guess the riddle, kid. That's 1 man on 2 sticks. What's that? The crucifix. At least that's what they taught me in Sunday school. Forgive my foes. Fives pointed at Pinocchio's nose. Skip to 6, go to 7. That's the number of completion. Adam ate the apple so they cast him from the Garden of Eden. Jealousy, got him waving his 9. Cain kills Abel. He a tin man, that mean his heart pump oil. 2 ones ain't enough to make it rain. Microphone check 12, hip hop lives in my vein. I'm from the era, dude scrap with their hands. Play Friday 13th, get cobra clutch a body slam. But my nephews, they don't use their hands no more. It's m fourteens and m fifteens. Guns and roses at your sweet 16. And I was born on October 17. That's the day the motherf**kers killed my leader. Jean Jacques Desaline. My mama told me there's monsters under my bed. They 18s, so think Malcolm X, the 19th hour by any means. 2020 vision, they say the good guy young. I had to trick death. That's how I made it past 21. That's amazing. You feel me? So now so you're like, okay, okay, okay. Now you now after I do that, bro, you literally would have so if you're playing chess, or how would you outsmart me? So now you would have to pick a scheme and come back. Or if I was presumably, I would not be able to do this. But if I was really thinking strategic, I would hit I would, on the fly, try to do 21 all making fun of you. Yeah. So now But I can't but, of course, I wouldn't be able to do that. No. But but now what happens is when the crowd is watching, the the 21 works so incredible. Right? And it's so well patterned. So once you step out of that zone and you go into the freestyle and you're coming at me, now I'm gonna outsmart you. Because if you're coming at me with 21 and my brain already, you're just coming out of the fly with not a form of memorization. So now you allow me to go free form on you. Right. And you're already gonna say You've gotten you've done this. You've seen reactions. So you're more you've got more, in your arsenal. More so, I I played you to my hand. Right. I've I've gotten sucked into your conversation. Yeah. Because now you wanna try to outbar this conversation. And so so doing that, it's almost like this was your kind of beginning 10000 hours on rap. Like, you were able to, you know, on It was my outlet. Yeah. Like I always say, my mama took a gun out of my hand and put a guitar. My cousins got killed in front of Erasmus in Brooklyn, so I didn't I didn't grow up like soft. Like, I literally was in the projects. You know what I mean? I'm the kid that, you know, that could put a Switchblade, like, under my tongue, like, when you're hearing, like, Fuji La, you know what I'm saying? And you go back, listen to the lyrics, and I'm talking about, yo, Switchblade under my tongue. Like, it was a survival for us. So for me, at the end of the day, every time I said a rap, and it was like, yo, this dude is trying he's trying to test our neighborhood. Go ahead. For us, it was hip hop just gave the outlet. Do you know how many people lives got saved over the fact that now we had another outlet? What are you doing? I'm breakdancing. What are you doing? I'm tagging. I'm doing graffiti. Yo, so and so got beef. And then the the big OGs like, alright, let's just solve it. All right, let's meet on the block at this time. Bring your bars. You know? And it was it's like I really want people to understand that. Like, at the end of the day, this really was not it's not just like let's make up words because the word rhymed with this word. Like where we come from, the rhymes was just based off of like survival. You know? Because if I wasn't rhyming that day, this particular bullet could be attended for me. You know what I mean? If I'm not rhyming, I'm on the block. Like, when you hit a carnival, I'm talking about the bubble goose. And I'm like, he caught a bullet in his bubble goose. He caught a you could be at the party getting loose talking about, like, you know, the trap going on in front of my grandma's spot. So at the end of the day, I always try to tell people. And it was funny because when we was coming out as the Fugees, I was like, yo, Tupac coming up, Same year, right? Biggie coming out. And this is like the rhyming is just so like, you know, the verbiage is so hardcore. And they're like, yo, there's no way that the Fugees would last, right? And I'm like, I said, yo, we all from the neighborhood. At the end of the day, we all are telling the same stories, right? So at the end of the day, Alfred Hitchc**k, he tells the horror in a different way than Stephen King. Right? No. It's so true. And you look at, like, you look at, like, Biggie. And we're we're not we're kinda skipping around because we haven't even gotten to, you know, really the hard conditions you came out of and how that transforms into success. But just on what you just mentioned, Biggie was very much a storyteller and had good production behind him. Tupac, you know, was on his own, great singer, rapper. You between you, Lauryn Hill, pros, you're all you were all mega musicians and producers in your own right. And the 3 of you coming together combined with elements, again, of of jazz and r and b and other styles of music, was so different from anybody else coming out of the same scene. Yeah. But, like, we have to your point, it was just bebop all over again in the new form. You know? Like, so new players that are replacing the Coltrane's and all of that, that just happened to be hip hop now. Right? I I agree. But when you compare it to, like, Biggie or Tupac, they didn't have Lauryn Hill. They didn't have you or Pross. Like, you know, all 3 of you brought something to to the table. 100%. But but I felt as authors, like, if a dude is like, yo, I'm gonna pull his gun and I'm gonna blast your head. And then they say it literally. Right? And then me, I go, now that I escaped sleep, walk, or awake, those who could relate know the world ain't cake. Jail bars ain't golden gates. Those who fake they break when they meet their 400 pound mate. Right? From ready or not. Right? That's right. Ready or not. I'm talking about prison life. I'm talking about, yo, you can get shanked up in there. Like, you literally could get raped. Like, it's a good cause of that. You know what I mean? Let's talk about that. Not the rape part, but let's talk about the the other part. Like, you were in you were in Haiti for the first 9 years of life. Facts. Facts. You were in you were in Brooklyn. You were in you you were basically it's not like everybody who had your background, like, said, oh, okay. I'm gonna be in the worst ghettos possible, and then I'm gonna simply be the biggest rap star on the planet. Like, where what's what's the leap? What made you different? I mean, I always say if anybody's seen the movie Slumdog Millionaire, that's us. That's the first 10 years. We didn't have a bathroom. We had what's called a. We had cars. You know what I mean? We took donkeys. You feel me? We didn't have, like, no light, like electricity. What the heck is that, man? We had that oil lamp. You know what I'm saying? We had that candle. Yo, it's time to go get water. Alright, dog. It's gonna take you 3 miles. You better walk to that well and bring back something good, you know? So but we had imagination, dude. Like, I remember, like, being in the in the hut, and we had this one game we played called I'm Going to America. And in this game, literally, I would get in the donkey, and all the kids would stand around, and they would wave and be like, yo, where you going? I'm going to America, man. And then I'm on a donkey. Now I gotta tell all the kids, ask them, like, okay, what do you want? And, you know, dude's like, yo, bring me back this. I'm like, what do you want? So so now I take the donkey, and I go around the cemetery all by myself with this donkey. I'm going around the cemetery. And as I come back around this cemetery, all of the kids are cheering now. Everyone's like, yo, yo, you bought the bike back from him. You know what I mean? And then I'm on my donkey, Like what? Jesus going into Jerusalem. Right? And I'm like, okay, here's your bike. You know, this is what your mom told me to say. Tell you, you know, so and so. Yeah. And we're so it's so incredible because I tell people, like, so within extreme poverty comes the gift of just like an insane form of imagination, where you literally take your brain and you go so far that you can forget the fact that you have not eaten for 2 to 3 days. And so a couple things in there. When you describe the story, you're on the donkey, Your friends are coming up with the stuff, and you ride around and come back, but you're at the center. And so was there an element of charisma even at an early age that kinda told you you're the one who's going to kinda stand out? Did that was there something internal, you think, that trying to figure out what's external, what's internal. What what what are the elements of kind of the success you had? Were you always the one riding the donkey, and always the one at the center with the imagination? Yeah. I was. Ali Bumbai. You know what I mean? Like, at a very young age, I always, I always stood up for, like, so in the neighborhood, if I felt like somebody was picking with somebody, I don't care if he was, like, 9, 10, bigger than me, we gonna come for you. And then I show up, and you'd be like, yo, this kid, like, he only weighs, like, 2, you know, 2¢. You know, like, and I would speak with authority. And I would say, like, all of that, you know, my aunt who raised me because my mother left me, when I was like, 1, because she was going to America. So she left me and my other little brother, so I was raised with my aunt. So my aunt basically would tell you, like, I was just so, just defiant. And I I was always like the community leader. So and I And so what what is it because it's like, let's say someone's listening to this, and they're like, I wanna have the charisma. I wanna step it up, step up my game so that I stand out, so that people pay attention, so that people are shouting out their dreams to me. Is it, a fact that you had these core values? Was your imagination just a little bit pushed more than everyone else? Like, what do you think and I know as a young age, so it's hard to die decipher. What do you think it was that gave you even that little push back in the middle of where you had nothing? I I really think it is, like, exactly what you said. It's the the I always tell people, right, there's nothing to fear but fear itself. Like, I really believe that. So anybody who's listening to this and you want that umph, you gotta be fearless. Like, you can't say I'm fearless, and then something comes at you and it throws you off. But you have to have you have to have a you have to have a foundation. What's your foundation that even then you were able to fall back on and say, no, I'm gonna stick up for this kid because it's wrong what's happening, and I'm gonna do what's right? I think the foundation is like looking at my aunt, looking at my grandma. My grandma, my mom's my mom's my mom's mom. You know what I mean? Like, she was, like, she was deep, man. Like, I remember, like, everybody that would hang in my grandma's, like, at times, you know, like I remember, like, once a month, man, when at times, you know, we got a chance to get a great meal. You know, like and that's that Sunday meal, baby. You know what I'm saying? Like, somebody went to the city, pulled a few chickens and, you know, like big. And my grandma literally looked like the food was for the entire community, even though it was for our house. And I remember, like, police would be coming to eat. You know what I mean? And it could be a dude who's, like, you know, a big gang leader. He's there. The police is there eating. You feel what I'm saying? So they expose you to, like, a lot of different types of communities. Yeah. And they told my grandma, why you gonna have them here? Like, this is a big gang, you know? And my grandma's like, look, at the end of the day, you see, if you put the police where the gang is at, and the preacher comes, and all of that, do you see what everyone's doing? Everyone's human. So at the end of the day, we all are humans. And she always, like, would say stuff like that, and it would just stick with me. You know what I mean? So grandma, definitely. My mama's mom. So, like, fast forwarding to the start of the Fujis, the name the Fujis comes from the word refugees, and it's almost like you're saying, hey, all of us outsiders could be our own tribe. You know, you see this this kind of, derivative of refugees. We're all, refugees to an extent from from, let's say, the the normal hurdles of life. And I I feel like it wasn't like you're just creating a rap group. It was almost like a movement. And I think you had that sense from early on. Hey. This is how we bring everyone together. We bring everybody into one tribe. The policeman and the gang leader and the preacher and your grandma and your aunt. Let me tell you some stuff I rarely say, man. I came from Haiti when I was 9. I was raised in Coney Island, man. At the time, it was the Italian mob. I couldn't even speak English that well. I was running numbers at a young age, dog. Like, so it's once again, it's not just like words for me. It's like, you know, when you're watching the Scarface movie and dude gets in the city, it's like, what are you gonna do? Like, so for me, the word refugee or immigrant, it was like really like once upon a time in America. Like we just felt like, yo, if we can get to this possibility of this place, like, you know, like we all have created equal space, if we can get there, then we can turn a negative to a positive. So by the time that was like, yo, we're gonna call the group refugees, it was because we had people that passed away in the Cuban waters. You know? We had those that made it to Miami, but got deported back. You know, I would watch some of my friends tell me the story of, like, yo, man. We just came from the Middle East. This is this is how it's going down. So we had to flee to come up here. I would listen to my friends from Africa say, yo. And then so I was, like, yo, we ain't gonna be, like, we're not creating music. I was, like, we're gonna create a movement. So what people are hearing on the score that they love so much, it's a sense of belonging. So the idea was to create a vision of like when you hear Bob Marley, it takes you to a place in the space. Right? And that's what we wanted to do. But more so than the word itself, it's a lifestyle. Like really, you know, I'm from my DNA is cut from that cloak of just that survival thing, that immigrant thing. And for me, I guess like that's part of like my core value of just to say to a kid you can go from a negative to a positive. You dig? And and and a lot of people don't do that. They have it as an excuse. Look. I'm just an immigrant. I'm not gonna get so far. Maybe my kids will get far, but I can't. So what made you think, hey. I could go further. I could step out of this label and make my own movement, make my own labels. So what made you think, hey. I could go further. I could step out of this label and make my own movement, make my own labels. Well, I would just say, like, so when we got to America, my dad was a preacher, Nazarene preacher, and I just used to see him, like, set up like the hood in the in the projects. Like, we'd be in the projects, and people would come in. And once again, it was sort of like the same thing that my grandma was doing. You know what I mean? And one day, I say this in a rap song too. We was on the roof of Marlboro Projects. Man, anybody wanna check out Marlboro Projects, like, in the early eighties, like, late seventies? Like, dude, this was like and we're on the roof. And me and my brother, and we, like, just young little immigrants coming over. And and and I look at my brother, I say, yo. So he said, what you he said he he looked at me and said, what are you gonna be? And we overlooking the city, you feel me, from, like, the roof. And I said, I'm gonna be a gangster. And he was like, man, if you're gonna be a gangster, then I have to be a lawyer. Because I gotta keep you out of trouble. And I was like, because yo, our mom can't be living like this. Yo, we gotta get her up out of here, and it look like this is probably gonna be the fastest way to do it. And we're like kids thinking like this. And today, his name is Samuel Jean, he's a lawyer in California. So we always sit back, and he laughs. He's like, hey, I see you didn't turn out to be a gangster. You did good. He still turned out to be a lawyer. So for me, those are the kind of stories that when I look back, you know, we'd be just giggling about. And when did when did the music come in? Like, you you knew, like, a ton of instruments at an early age. Clearly, you had talent, but talent requires skill to feed it. A lot of people have talent and never make it. What what when did the talent come in? When did you realize this was this was the love of your life to do this? And and when you decide, hey. I'm gonna put in thousands of hours to be the best. I always credit it back to the village and One time? People. Just the yeah. Like, Young man. So I always credit back to being in that village, that small village. My aunt always says I'm always singing, which I was always and there's an instrument called a tumble, which is a drum constantly playing it. And coming to the states and, my father having a church, this is how the whole thing started. He wanted to have a band for the church. Right? He was like, yo, I need music in this church. Right? To to attract more people, whatever. So what better way than to get my kids to become the church band, right? Free child labor? Yeah. So we We're reporting your dad to child protective services right now. My daddy. Right? RIP. So we so he literally like, okay. Right? So like like Joe Jackson. Right? I'm going to this is the early days, and he just saw, like, we just love singing around the house. So he had one little TV called We in the Hood. And, you know, my dad was, like, the Haitian Al Bundy, so he controlled the TV. And there were, like, 2 things, like, you can really watch on television with my dad. 1 was cowboy movies. He was obsessed, like, certain cowboy movies. Like, I know, like, mister nobody. You know, that's a really rare like, some people might know who that is. But it's a doodle, literally, would shoot, from he literally made a gun out of his hand. So my dad so we can tell you the year and what Western played. And the other thing which he allowed us to watch was the Muppet Show. So in the Muppet Show, you had animal and everybody. So everybody played instruments. An animal on the drums. You know, you had Kermit, that this is how Kermit talked this out. Still, till today I could speak like Kermit the frog. So you had Kermit, you had all these dudes. Well, we we we've had miss piggy on the podcast, actually. Man, I love miss piggy. So we, one Christmas, my father shows up, dude, with all the instruments from the Muppet Show. Dog, man, we spent weeks banging on things, playing the drums, blam, and and he's looking and he's laughing every day. And every Sunday now, they're, you know, I'll be I'll be with this, a witness for love. And, you know, you're playing and you're sounding terrible. And he's like, go ahead, go ahead, go ahead. You go. And then eventually, as I started getting like to be like 12, 13, I just started while my friends were playing Atari, I just started saying, man, let me figure out how I could do this drum solo from Bruce Springsteen. You know what I'm saying? My little brother Sadegh, who played drums. He was incredible. And he was very young. It was like, oh, man. Then I saw him, and trying to figure out. He was little than the drum. So then we all go on the drums, and now we all are trying to do this. Then it's the guitar, then it's the bass, then it's the accordion. So, dude, by the time I'm like 16 years old, I'm literally self taught in, like, anything that's a string instrument, you know? And not only the instruments, but also the styles. Like, Bruce Springsteen, you have to get used to his style if you're gonna play his stuff. Well, the way that that happened, which people be like, yo, dude, you're weird. Like, how? Because my my rep I learned rock before rap. And people like I say, yeah, like, I learned rock. And they said, so being that my dad was a minister, this this is rad. So it was fully a Crayol congregation, dude. They spoke no English. No English in the congregation, purely Crayol. And we are learning how to speak English, right? Meaning the kids. And then so my dad was so strict you could not play nothing in the house, that was not Christian music. So the first band we was introduced to was called Petra. Petra was a Christian rock band. Petra, Striper, those two bands. So we was playing everything like Petra. You know, it's, it's okay. There's a song called Annie, all of this stuff. So one day, man, I look at my brothers. I said, man, look, man. Ain't like they understand what we're saying anyway. So all we gotta do is pick up, all we gotta do is say Jesus name in our music because that's the only thing they know in English. So So my brother was like, yo, what you got here? My brother was like, yo, this is the police, man, synchronicity. I was like, yo, let's check it out. Now we're listening to the police synchronicity. Yo, what you got here? Yo, this is Pink Floyd, The Wall. All of this music, we was doing it because it was the closest thing sounding to, Christian rock because we didn't wanna play Christian rock in the church. We was getting bored, so we needed music that was sonically sounding like that. And then the Christian guys was calling it rock and putting Christian on it, but it was sounding purely like what the guys was doing. And then so this is how we we discovered all of that. You know what I'm saying? So born in the USA was not born in the USA. It was born in the Jesus town. Born in the Jesus town. First step I heard when I hit the ground. You know, so we was all of this all of this rock music that you could think about, we would literally we're doing covers of them in the church. But that's amazing because think about it this way. Born in the USA, in a weird way, it's as if it was focus grouped by all of the United States, and in all of the United States said, yes. This is good. And so you took advantage of that focus group. Mhmm. You brought it to a group who hadn't heard it at all. You changed the words to Jesus. You know it's gonna work. And it worked 100% because But it's like what you did with with the Bee Gees and your style the Fuji style. Like That's right. On and on. You know it's gonna work when you do that. That's right. You're killing me softly. You know it's gonna work. It's gonna work, baby. And so that but but but it's not to take away from your skill. You spent the 10000 hours learning every instrument, learning the styles, learning the theory. Like, so you had the kind of core values. You had the charisma. You had the practical experience on the stage, And then you kind of add this you learn this ability to take famous songs that you knew would work and do it to an audience in a new way where you know a 100%. There's, like, 0% chance they're not gonna like it. 100%. You know, for me, and and also the gift of DJing, right? So you could forget about it. So, you know, I had my cousins, they were DJing, and I would be the front emcee. So I literally knew every crepe, every song. I can go to any audience. You know what I mean? And this is another way to make a little $100 a week. You know, I can play anything. I can read a crowd in 2 minutes. So literally, we show up, and, like, oh, you know, we we hired to play, like, you know, a suburban party. You know what I'm saying? And I'm like, dog, this is the playlist. Journey, Bon Jovi, like, you know, and I'm I could just look at the crowd. I'm like, yo, this is the play. Anything. We could be a heavy metal party, a reggae party. Well, what would you do? Like, okay. They tell you to play Don't Stop Believing by Journey. What would you do? Oh, I have it. So I built so we built a crate. So we had what was called a small sound system. So one of my other one of our other gifts that I love most was one of my favorite things was to go to the record store. And in the record store, just spend days, like, literally we come back. So, you know, like in a rock section, you would be pulling records. And per the buzz of what you're hearing, it's like, yo, man, What you play last week? Yo, I played Journey. Don't stop believing. What was that? Dog, I'm telling you right now, you might wanna go to the record store because somebody might call it. So you literally building your crates. And and, and and once in a while, right, they'll come in, and they will ask you for something in the crate. And then you won't have it, but you'll make sure that you ride it. So, like, the next time I I think somebody had asked me one time in the crate for a John Cougar Mallon cap. You know what I'm saying? And it wasn't Wait. What's his what's his famous song, John Cougar? I think it was like, down and down. Oh, was that it? Doesn't he do the one where Jack and Diana. Jack and Diana. Somebody asked me for Jack and Diana. I ain't no I was like, John Cougar who here? Cougar? You know, I didn't know what's going on. But, but once again, what is that? It's almost like, so you spend an entire, your entire time just searching for music, finding music, loving music, right, while your boys are playing basketball. And they love it, so they know every team, every player, you know. You got those that are so for me it was like that with music. So it was like, uh-oh, Jeopardy. I'll take 500 for music. You know? So what do you think? Like, if let's say someone's listening to this, and and they're going to their job, their corporate job. They're they've been doing it for 30 years. They're getting tired. And and then, like, it's easy for him to say, I get it. He grew up in bad neighborhoods and, you know, poverty stricken countries, but he had these benefits. He had this benefit that as a kid, he was able to put in his 10000 hours studying music. I wanna do something new now. What would you suggest to a guy like that? Yeah. Well, I mean, I had absolutely no advantage. My come up literally was like it wasn't like I had the time, and it was like, oh, my mom was on welfare. Let me spend. No, I was a security guard. I was the waiter. I was the bus boy that was serving you. Right? Do you think it's I was doing all of these jobs, but at the same time, I remember when they kicked me out of they kicked me, I might as well say the restaurant that I got kicked out. I remember I got fired from Burger King, though. Right? And if anybody What did you do? First of all, remember on the mass on the score, remember I said, I used to work at Burger King, a king taking orders. You know what I'm saying? So yeah. So what did I do? I literally was making whoppers, but at the same time, he caught me, like, singing. You know what I'm saying to you? And one thing about it is when you're working in these fast food restaurants in our era, you would walk in and they would try to brainwash you with a a video of what you're supposed to do and what not to do. And this video is like the bible. So when you you know, it's like, welcome to Burger King. When you're making the whopper, this is how you have to do. Your hands must be clean. Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom. You must and I wasn't, like, talking over no sandwich. You feel me? But literally I'm making my whopper and then my mind, man, you know, I'm like just in Madison Square Garden and I'm just singing my songs and the dude comes. He's like, what are you doing? What are you doing, Jean? And I'm like, I'm making a whopper. He's like, no. You're singing over the whopper. Is that what you're doing? I'm like, no. I'm not. Man, bang. Fired. So I just want everyone that's listening. So it's not like, we're those people. Like, I was just saying at the end of the day, every jobs that you could think what was the word? That's like, yo, Clef can't keep a job. Because literally, the job that I loved and was most passionate about was just doing my music. But when I tell you I've done every the job that I remember most was working with my father. And this is why nobody in the world could tell me nothing about America. Nobody. Because I traveled the world. And when I tell you there's really no place like America, my man. Like, this ain't just a word. This like a immigrant who's telling you that. Because I'm working with my father, and we cleaning bathrooms. I'll never forget at the Ramada Inn in New Jersey. Yes. Wyclef is cleaning bathrooms with his dad. And when I was cleaning bathrooms with my dad, the cover band was outside, and they're playing Journey. But the the coolest thing the cover band was playing was, owner of Aloni Heart. Gangnam. Owner. You know? And so when I used to clean the bathrooms, I would lose myself with the music that the cover bands were playing. And I remember I had the plunger, and somebody did a mess in the bathroom, man. And I, like, put the plunger down. You know what I'm saying? And freaking piss come up on Wyclef's face. Man, dude, I'm so pissed off and so heated right now. I take the plunger and I throw it down. Right? And my father comes to me, and he's like, you pick up the plunger. Pick up the plunger now. And I pick up the plungers like, this is America, you know? Never be shameful of anything you do as long as what? As long as it's honest. As long as it's like, yeah, as long as it's honest. Okay. You go back, you finish the bathroom. And so for me, it's like, that's why I could relate to Bruce Springsteen. You know, that's why I could relate to Marley because so anyone who's listening to this, this ain't that's why I said my life is like the Cinderella man. Because at the end of the day, it's like, I just want everybody know the key to what I did is just the passion. And at the end of the day, it's like whether I'm cleaning the bathroom, whether I'm a waiter, where wherever you see me, everyone gonna be like, yo, when I see this dude, he just was so happy. Like it was his last day on earth. Because this is how my daddy raised me, but in my brain, I just had a, a ending plan. It's not where you start, but where you're going. You know? And I think it's having that positive aspect that is always lets you move forward instead of saying, this is all I'm gonna be. I have my excuses. I can't do it. Like, if every day, you're kinda saying, okay. Well, I'm listening to, yes, I'm cleaning the bathroom. I'm gonna be positive about it just like my dad said. That's always a way to just slightly move the needle a little forward. And if you keep doing that, you know, maybe it'll be at a later age. You could succeed where you succeeded, but it could still happen. 100%. I always tell people that 1st rule my dad to me, you have to have a job. Like, dude, you gotta be doing something, like, at the end of the day. But the job but passion is different. And they my dad said, but once you lose your passion though, you lose everything. So I always tell people, so my brother is a lawyer, but his passion is writing. So he loves to write scripts. And this is where he gets, like, his energies. And so I I always meet people, and they're like, yo, you know, I'm working at AT and T. Right? Or I'm a IT guy here. I'm a, you know but then I also meet people that, like, yo, I'm a doctor, but, yo, I'd be DJ ing on the weekends. This is what I love. And somehow, this is what they love. So I always tell us as humans, like, don't forget the true essence of life. You still because sometimes it seems like you need that dollar. And because you need that dollar so much, you only work for that dollar. Then you turn around, you're 6 feet deep, and have not enjoyed the essence of life, which is adventure. And you have to have passion and find it. And so so there's 2 things I wanna unpack there. One is kind of the obvious question, which is some people, they've been so drained in by, you know, college, grad school, then their job for 20 years, then raising the family, all these honorable, respectable things, but they forgot to find their passion, or they forgot to find a passion. Because you don't have to be passionate about just one thing. You can be passionate about many things. What's the technique maybe to find a passion? And you found yours so early on. Maybe it's hard for you to sort of connect how someone older could find a passion. Well, I think older people could definitely find a passion. I'll give you an example. I always say every person has at least one good friend. Like, they'll just give it to you. You know what I'm saying? To you, like Steve's Mike. Steve's Mike. Yeah, yeah. They're the one who's always gonna be blunt with you and just raw. And you'll be like, shut up. But you know they always just got that thing for you. And so I always tell people, make sure that the company around you is like company, you know? So if you just sit down and every weekend, you're with a crew, And what they're gonna be doing is they're gonna be putting the jack on the table, and they're gonna be talking about the stories that happened in 69 and 70, and every weekend it's the same thing. Then next thing you know, you're gonna be like 80, 90. Like what happened? So, I always believe in encouraging people. Quick story. So my wife, she was a fashion designer, and her name is Fusha Design. She was doing Brian Park for 3 seasons. And she was competitive to fat form to everything. Like, she was insane. Then we had my daughter, Angelina. And she's like, you know what? I'm I have to stop this fashion thing. Like, I gotta go raise my daughter. And then so she spent, like, 13 years. My daughter's 13. And she raised her. And now you would think, like, if she's gonna go back in a fashion climate, it's a whole new another climate. Right? So how do you go back to your passion? Because at the end of the day, that was really her passion. But she knew at the end of the day, there's nothing greater than raising her daughter. So I was like, you know what? You can do it. Like, I'm with you. Like, just to I know that that's your gift and that's your passion. And she just did her first show was at Pier 59. Right? Man, she did this show. My daughter's 13. She comes out. I'm DJ ing the show. You know, I'm the DJ for hire. And, and, and I look at her face. It's priceless. I could never get her the cheese like that, because the cheese is coming all the way up to her ears. Because once again, it's something that she's passionate about. So I always say you need people around you still that can at least encourage you and tell you, yo, you're not finished. Like, yo, you still got it. Like, you you know, you still need that. Because sometimes when we as humans are just by ourselves with nothing, the doubt factor will for sure kick in. And so I'm gonna I'm gonna get to the doubt factor in a second because you had to deal with it with your first album. But there's one other thing I wanna mention about all your jobs that you had when you were starting out, and I've heard you refer to this in an interview. This and I love this. Describe the phrase, build your vacuum network. Oh, yeah. Build your vacuum network. So one of my jobs, anyone who's listening, I'm actually was the king of selling Kirby vacuums. I kind of had a feeling, just so you know. Right. So I'm a I'm a good salesman. And so with Kirby, you get the training. And Kirby's as you can see, once I start talking about Kirby vacuums, my entire voice changes. The whole pitch changes. This is not like Burger King. Wyclef Jean is about to sell you this Kirby vacuum, and you need this in your life. Like you just lost your whole accent, everything. You feel me like, I am selling Kirby vacuum. But what was deep about Kirby vacuums is you go into the individual's house. And the thing about anyone who knows about Kirby vacuums it's a kit. You literally have to put the entire vacuum together, you know? And I always use this analogy because if you can, like, leave that house having sold the Kirby vacuum, like at the end of the day, there's nothing that you want to sell that you can't sell. And so at the end of the day, I used to go from house to house, house to house. And I I didn't sell in every house. Like, but even when I didn't sell the vacuum, I remember somebody, like, pushing me out. You feel me? Like, you're pushing me out. And as they're pushing me out, I'm like, yo, you're going to regret this. Can't you see the dust? Can't you see the get out of here. You know what I'm saying to you? So it was like that that thing, which once again, only in America. That idea of that opportunity, and here it is. Are you gonna take it or not? So the same way that I would sell you a Kirby vacuum is gonna be the same mentality that I'm going to use now to if you come at the show, and I'm like, yo, you need a Wyclef piece of merch. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You don't understand. You can't leave without this merch. Right? So it's almost like you find things that you've done in your childhoods and different jobs. You're literally, like, applying it to your modern job, your modern day life, you know? And also, would you try to sell CDs to vacuum customers? Wasn't there an element today? Of course. Of course. So you were always connecting the dots. Of course. You have to. Exactly. Because what happens is anywhere that I go, I always got my music with me. So at the end of the day, I always use like the Burger King story. I'm always saying, so there's always an opportunity. So at the end of the day, I remember it's so funny. I remember I would it was a Kirby vacuum, and I sold this Kirby vacuum. And I left the person with a blend tape. A CD. A blend CD. And I was like, you know what? Today's a good day, you know? You bought this Kirby vacuum for me. I'm gonna leave you with some of my music. And at the end of the day, this person's taking the music. I don't know if they're gonna play it or not, but they're like, yo, this this is a very interesting character here. You know what I'm saying? To you, like, did he just, like, you know I'm like, yeah. No. Don't worry about it. You don't have to pay for this. I'm going to give it to you. And then at times, you know, we we we sold the music. You know what I mean? But with everything that I always do, there's always a component of, like, music in it. There's always a component of melody. So always kind of taking what you're doing, even if it's not the passion, but figuring out how to connect it to the passion. Watch this. I worked in a beauty salon store for EK Korean Boss. And I'm working for him in this store, and I'm selling beauty products. Anybody who's listening to this and you want to test Wyclef Jean's beauty products, let's go. We got precise Revlon. Right? These are some of this very important. Another great, shampoo and conditioner is called Cream of Nature. Okay. We could get into it, but this is the story. So while I'm working, he's from Korea. So I was like, yo, man. Teach me some Korean. And literally so if I'm like, I promise you, if someone's Korean, they're like, how do I clef notice? Because while I was working there, I was like, yo, I should probably learn a few lines in Korean on my freestyle. Because when I get to Seoul, I'm gonna know I'm gonna have to be able to flip the word. Man, if someone was standing next to me in the hood, like, so where? Where the hell are you what what what are you thinking about? You know? But once again, this is that connection of anything that I'm doing. There's always some kind of a music thing I'm looking for. Well, and also, this is you mentioned Einstein was one of your favorite philosophers. This is a thought experiment. What if my music keeps going and I end up in Seoul, Korea? I need to be able to blow the crowd away. That's the what if. And that's so that's always, like, how I moved. You know what I mean? And that's how when I look at Einstein, you know, and I see the two sides of the mind, you know, like that side and the the other side with the violin. The the this was a whole another level because classical music is like calculus. It's a whole another thing just to to watch how he would it's that what if factor. You know? And people don't understand it because it's an invisible world when you're talking about it. You know what I mean? So it's like, why is this dude learning Korean? Like, what and my managers, they know. They'll see me in the car. And every day, I got 16 bars that are written in a rhyme form every day. And stay very current to the generation. They're like, yo, what? I said, what if one day I pop up on stage and there's some kids like, yo, I wanna battle you right now. Like, I can't be debate like, yo, I knew you from boom boom boom. And and I was like, man, I have to always be ready to give the crowd some unexpected thing. And so for me, this what if factor is just a natural thing for me in my life. I think that's I think that's so important. I think that's what gets you past the doubt, which gets me to album number 1. You guys are already incredible musicians. The album even went gold, but at first, it was considered a total flop. Nobody wanted to do your next album. And it's hard to be young and experience some failure or rejection. Like, how you know, persistence beats resistance, but how did you push forward? Alright. So his his his so you you're bringing back, like, so much memory, and I know everyone's, like, tuned in. So I'm always, like, thinking of, like, what happened in the past that could just okay. So the album's called Blended on Reality. And the album, according to them, it flops. Right? Dude, you sell 500,000 at that time. That's considered flopping. Like, can you imagine? That'll be the number one album of Yeah. Like the 2010s. So so, so, it was very it was very, very, very, very rough because you're trying to figure it out. So I was like, man, what am I gonna what are what are we gonna do? Like, so once again, we always keep going back to the village, right? The what if factor. Here's the what if. So young man's the village, right? No, the village in Haiti. So I went back, man. I was like, okay. What am I gonna do here? People ain't paying attention. So one day I'm sleeping, and I wake up. I'm in the hood, in the booger basement now. The booger basement. And you know what I'm saying? I, I woke up. You know what I'm saying? Young little thug hippie. I already have my jaw, my spliff. So by the time I get up, I'm already moving slow motion. And the TV comes on, and I see a dog with one patch doing a Budweiser commercial. And I said, oh, s**t. If this dog can be famous in America, oh, hell no. Ain't no way I ain't gonna be famous. An animal being famous? It ain't gonna happen. And so I said, I need a mascot for the next show. So the managers called and said, you guys are opening up for Jodeci. This is big. Like, anyone who's listening to that, like, that would have been like someone's like, okay, like a kid coming out today, and then they're like, oh, you're opening up for Chris Brown. You know what I mean? Or the Migos. Like, you know what I mean? It's like, for real, I'm gonna get a shot. So you clearly know that there's gonna be eyeballs there. So once again, I'm like, yo, how can, you know, like, how what's it's the what if factor. So I went down to Newark and I went to the livestock store. Now anybody who's listening to this, I want y'all to know that I love animals. You know, you can look online, and I've I've been from cubs to lions to all kind of animals. I don't believe, like, animals should be caged up with nothing. I feel like they actually should be moving with people. So I told the dude, listen, I got a show tonight. I need a mascot. Do you have any cows? Right? So I forgot, like, coming from this village, like, because in my brain when I was little, somehow, I'm thinking of a little baby cow. Right? And dude brings me to this to this room, and they're like these big a*s cows. I'm like, dog, I got a hoopty. These cows can't fit in my hoopty. I got a show tonight. I need a mascot. Do you got anything smaller? He brings me to this other room, and he opens the door. And I freak out at first, and he's like, yo, yo, don't freak out. This is what we call a rear Mexican goat. The goat has 2 horns, red eyes, and it's all white. And I said, dog, this gonna be the mascot for tonight. So I take the goat back in the hood. I put, a Fuji t shirt on the goat. How are you cleaning like when the s**t when the goat Oh, it got crazy. So I put the Fuji t shirt on the goat. At this point, my my band members think I'm crazy. And the single, which is the single, which is called Boof Bop. And we go and we get in the club that night, and the dude's like, yo, his name was Big Cap, a big DJ. He passed away. He was like, this next group coming up, they got flavor. Y'all make some noise for the Fudgies. I was like, this is not our names, but it's okay. He will learn. So Lauren comes out. She starts singing, Pride starts singing. And now they're like, yo, Clef, where you at? Clef, where you at? So I'm trying to me and this goat was super cool until then. Now I'm trying to bring the goat on and the goat refuses to go on. True story. I picked the goat up, put the goat on stage. The goat runs across the stage. It's a Jodeci concert. All so you can imagine how many pretty women are. The women start to run back as if it's an Exorcist movie, and the goat freaks out and he s**ts through the whole trailer of the stage. And and, and I remember that night because it was like, yo, Clef, how could you do this? You have completely ruined us. I was just trying to get a way for people to start to pay attention because for chapter 2, I saw where it was going. Right? Now Puffy is in the middle of the street with a diaper, right, with a pacifier promoting Biggie. So for me, I ain't I'm not doing nothing. You know what I mean? I don't see I think I'm headed the right route. And so 3 days later, the radio is going on and they're like, yo, y'all won't believe what happened, man. Some group came out of a Jodeci concert. I think they were from Haiti. They was trying to sacrifice a goat on stage, right? And he was like, yo, what's their name? He said, yo, I think they were the Fugees and the Goat t shirt said boof bof. And he's like, what's that? It's like, yo, I think that that was the single. And I promise you that from that day on, and I heard that on the radio, there was no doubt in my mind that we had to be in that basement working on the score. Because I was like, yo, we have their attention. So I always tell people, like, you know what I'm saying? Like when in doubt, you just have to find a new route. You dig what I'm saying to you? So that that that's how that was one of the because sometimes I always tell people, if you feel like you truly got the skills, right, to get the crowd there like The Art Awards, sometimes you have to apply promotions and in a very witty way. Absolutely. I mean, you still have to get noticed to get people in the door. Yeah. Yeah, man. And then the score itself is written in such a unique way. Like and I'm even talking about the song, the score, which is my which, personally, for me, is my favorite song on that album. Like how do you that wasn't a cover. That was very unique. Very, very unique, and you could hear a lot of jazz roots in that. You know what I'm saying? There was this, producer by the name of Diamond D, and he was just you could just tell that he had this jazz thing going. You know what I mean? And then, wanted something that had very jazz roots. And as a guitar player, you know, wanted something that just sounded totally different than anything that was out there. Like, what happens if you take great vocals and put against a jazz record? And it almost had, like, this mystical feel to it. Like, I don't know. It just sounded even different from jazz songs. I don't to me. But but once again, it was sort of like the way that I see jazz and the way we heard it on the score, it was like after the bebop and all of that. It was like what would be the new jazz? It was hip hop. So it was like the way that we heard it would be like if we were doing jazz, which to a person, they'll be like, that's not jazz. That's some funky stuff going on. And we like but in our brains, it's like the new version of what jazz would be. You know? And now so now fast forwarding a 1000000 years, Netflix is planning an animated special based on your childhood. Like, what happened? They they call you up and say, hey, we really think this is gonna be the greatest animated special of all time. Man, for me, what's exciting about that is the last movie score that I scored was Life for Eddie Murphy or Mont Lawrence. And so being someone who's also trained in my later years musically, like, the next phase I want to get to is like, yo, I want to be competitive with the people that are doing scores at the Oscars. I want to be competitive. I believe I've got the chops to do that. So for me, we approach Netflix, right? So my man Greg, you know, Madeline, and, my man who wrote the book, The Jungle Book, we we approached them on an idea of, like, look, man, at the end of the day, this is what I want to do. Like, I want to do, you know, Wyclef inspired music movie first 10 years. And I was like, yo, like the same way like you got Rio or the Cinderella story. I would like to show the world Haiti from the eye of a kid that turns what can appear to the eye as poverty, but is the biggest Disneyland in the world. And, so at the end of the day, this will definitely I it will inspire kids from all over the world, because it's a real kid from a third world island. And when little kids are watching this, man, and they see that what you gonna eat today? We don't have nothing to eat. And then someone out of nowhere kicks a soccer ball, for example. And all of a sudden, everyone just forgets the fact that they was just talking about food, that we about to play soccer all day. It's just, oh, I could take that kid from Haiti and put that ball there. I could take a kid from Afghanistan. Put him in the same field with the ball. Take another kid from Israel. Put him in the same field with the ball. Take a kid from Syria. Same ball. Take a kid from Brooklyn. Same ball. And we stand back. And what they're gonna do? They all gonna play football. So at the end of the day, I wanna inspire the youth when they see this and to show that there's unification when it comes to youth. And the only division factor is the fact that we make the division. And at the end of the day, if we could think like a child, and from the eye of a child, maybe the world would be different. You know? And it's such an important message in a world where everybody's seeking to divide right now and rather than unify. Yeah. And when can that when when do we expect to see that that show out? I guess, like, the animation probably, like, 2, 3 years. You know? Like, I think 2 years, they're gonna definitely, and then the music. Right? So Wyclef, the composer, sounds of Haiti. Right? The the way that this is gonna be recorded. I'm gonna bring you things you've never heard before sonically. You know, I plan to go to the deep mountains of Haiti. Deep mountains where, you know, the celebration of voodoo, you know, as a celebration. And I want to record the women. I want to record them singing. And I need to show like the beauty of the island. It's magical. You got to do the making of documentary, too. Yeah. The making of the music is gonna be because if I don't have a camera and when we go to these places, like to show you what these instruments are made out of, you know, there's a place where I bring you and a lady will just sing, and you'll just start crying. You don't know why you're crying, but it's like that frequency of motion. So for me, I would like to present, something to the world as a composer the same way when I heard the score for Once Upon a Time in America. I was like, yo, man, This is dope. Or when we heard this score for The Godfather, right, it was like, yo, what is this? So I'm very excited about the composition of what will what I will create musically. And it's so it's sort of like even now, every day, you're pushing forward. You write your 16 bars in the morning. You're thinking about animated shows. You're thinking about, you know, you know, this unified vision of how people should operate. You're thinking musically, how that all ties in. It's like you push yourself each day to keep improving, and that's kind of a lesson too as you get older. Like, nothing has to stop. You don't rest on your laurels. No. Not at all. I learned that from Quincy Jones. I mean, you know, like, I just turned 49. I'm just getting started. He didn't do Michael Jackson till he was, like, 53, 54. Yeah. That's good news. I'm 50. So you know what that means? Family, we're just getting started. I call it chapter 2, which is so exciting. Yeah. I like that. Well, you know, Wyclef Jean, the Fugees, back to school with the mixtape. When's that gonna come out? When can I answer that? So so so the the new project is slated for December 14th. So I'm just wrapping up. We're finishing the, with the kids. So we have the first single, the poet that comes in at the end of the first single is a student from NYU. So the first single is a record called Baba. Baba is after I took my DNA test, and that's the first record from the mixtape. So everybody that'd be like, yo, that wanna hear Wyclef first 2018 back to the Essence hip hop roots, for sure listen to Baba. And what did what did your DNA test show you? Did you learn anything? Yeah. So Are you part Jewish? I think everyone is. I'm not so I'm I'm naturally Nigerian. So it it showed me in a heavy, heavy connection, like deep rooted with, like, you know, Africa. And then the Nigerian side, which a lot of Haitians said, no, you know, because Haitians are necessarily from Benin, which is another part. And it was so crazy, like, when I took it to just see how deep the Nigerian bloodline was. And damn, warriors in a movement. And it made me understand certain things about myself. Like, okay, like, all right. This is why you decided to run for president of Haiti. You know what I'm saying? Like, you used to running straight. You know what I mean? Like, you're not scared of the fire. So I always encourage people at the right time. It's always great to, if you get the chance with the right people, get the get get your DNA test. And just it it it inspired me for chapter 2. Well, I wanna I wanna close-up, but I just wanna say what I was telling you out there. The first time I heard you at all was, like, early 1996. I think I was on the second date with the woman who who was my first wife. And, we're at Madison Square Garden for, the Beau Galata fight where there was a riot at the end. Yeah. Yeah. Yes. Because Galata was hitting too much below the belt, and then everyone started fighting. But Riddick Bowe comes out, and it's the song was the score. And I'm like, what is this song? This is the best song I've ever heard. And then that's when I became a huge fan. Thank you. Thank you. So so thank you. So I feel like it's, like, full circle. Thank you so much for coming on the podcast. Thank you, man. Come back anytime. Is it because I've heard both. Gene and Jean, is it? It's all good. Like No. I'm just saying. So in in America, I wanna see the f**king record. No. No. No. No. In America, you have Jean, you have Jean. So my Texas gang call me Jean. Right? What about Wycliffe? Yeah. You have you also have Wycliffe. You know what I'm saying? So my Nigerian. You know what I mean? As long as it's Wycliffe. We we we out here in America, baby. Wycliffe. You good? No. I disrespect you. Oh, thanks so much. Thank you. Thank you so much, man. And I'm about to go check the comedy joint down there. Please. Excellent. Yeah. Yeah. We'll do some event down there. Yeah. For sure.