Nelust Wyclef Jean ( WY-klef ZHON; born October 17, 1969) is a Haitian rapper, singer, songwriter and music producer. Jean emigrated to the United States as a child. He gained fame as a member of Fugees, a hip-hop trio he formed with Lauryn Hill and Pras, serving as the group's lead producer and guitarist. Their second album The Score (1996) became one of the best-selling albums of all time. Jean launched a solo career with Wyclef Jean Presents The Carnival (1997), which spawned the hit singles "We Trying to Stay Alive" and "Gone till November".
Jean produced the remix for "No, No, No" by Destiny's Child, which became their breakthrough single. He also co-wrote the 1999 singles "My Love Is Your Love" for Whitney Houston and "Maria Maria" for Santana. His second album, The Ecleftic: 2 Sides II a Book (2000), was supported by the single "911" (featuring Mary J. Blige), and received platinum certification by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). His third album, Masquerade (2002), peaked within the top ten of the Billboard 200. He was featured on Shakira's 2006 single, "Hips Don't Lie", which peaked atop the Billboard Hot 100. Released the following year, his single "Sweetest Girl (Dollar Bill)" (featuring Akon, Lil Wayne and Niia), served as lead single for his sixth studio album and final release on a major label, Carnival Vol. II: Memoirs of an Immigrant (2007).
Alongside his recording career, Jean has produced and co-written several hit songs for other artists, including the rock artists Bono and Mick Jagger, and co-wrote "Dar um Jeito (We Will Find a Way)", the official 2014 FIFA World Cup anthem, alongside Carlos Santana, Avicii, and Alexandre Pires. Jean also contributed to various film and television projects, including scoring The Agronomist (2003) and appeared on the Emmy-nominated 30 Rock episode "Kidney Now!". In 2004, Jean co-wrote "Million Voices" for Hotel Rwanda, earning a Golden Globe nomination for Best Original Song.
Beyond music, Jean has been active in Haitian politics and philanthropy. In 2007, he was appointed Ambassador-at-Large of Haiti and later ran for the 2010 Haitian presidency, but was deemed ineligible due to residency requirements. His charity, Yéle Haiti, raised funds for Haitian relief efforts, including the 2010 Haitian earthquake, before disbanding amid financial scrutiny. Jean has won three Grammy Awards, while his work as a producer has been recognized by the Grammy Hall of Fame. He is the recipient of the BET Humanitarian Award and the NAACP Vanguard Award. In 2011, Haitian President Michel Martelly awarded him the National Order of Honour and Merit. Jean is among the few artists to chart on 16 different Billboard radio charts.
Named after the biblical scholar John Wycliffe, Wyclef Jean was born in Croix-des-Bouquets, Haiti on October 17, 1969. At nine years old, he emigrated with his family to Brooklyn, New York City, and ultimately settled in East Orange and Newark, New Jersey. Jean began to make music as a child, and as a teen, his mother, having recognized his musical talent, bought him a guitar. He has cited reggae artist Bigga Haitian as one of his early influences, as well as neighborhood heroes MC Tiger Paw Raw and producer Lobster v. Crab. He has stated that he played music to earn respect. Jean graduated from Newark's Vailsburg High School and enrolled for one semester at Five Towns College in New York. In 2009 he enrolled in the Berklee College of Music to pursue his diploma. Jean has been a resident of Saddle River, South Orange, and North Caldwell, New Jersey.
Jean and other musicians formed a group in the 1980s under the name Tranzlator Crew. Jean and band member Lauryn Hill pursued a romantic relationship beginning in 1992, and ending in 1997, the year of the band's breakup. Jean later revealed that Hill's dishonesty about the parentage of her child, Zion David, caused the rift that split the group up. After they signed with Ruffhouse Records and Columbia Records in 1993, they renamed their group the Fugees – an abbreviation of "refugees", and also a sometimes derogatory reference to Haitian immigrants. The group's debut album, Blunted on Reality, was released in 1994. It achieved limited commercial success, peaking at number 62 on the US Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart. The album peaked at number 122 on the UK Albums Chart in 1997, and it was certified gold by the Syndicat National de l'Édition Phonographique (SNEP). Blunted on Reality spawned three singles: "Boof Baf", "Nappy Heads" and "Vocab". "Nappy Heads" was the Fugees' first single to be ranked on the US Billboard Hot 100, charting at number 49.
In 1996, the Fugees released their second album, titled The Score. The album achieved significant commercial success in the U.S., topping the Billboard 200. It was later certified as six-times Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). It performed well in several overseas nations, topping the Austrian, Canadian, French, German and Swiss albums charts, while also peaking at number two in Sweden and the United Kingdom.
Four commercially successful singles were released from The Score; "Fu-Gee-La", the first single from the album, peaked at number 29 on the Billboard Hot 100 and was certified gold by the RIAA and by the Bundesverband Musikindustrie (BVMI). The other three singles – "Killing Me Softly", "Ready or Not" and "No Woman, No Cry" – did not appear on the Billboard Hot 100 as they were not released for commercial sale, making them ineligible to appear on the chart, although they all received sufficient airplay to appear on the Hot 100 Airplay and Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay charts. "Killing Me Softly", a cover of the Roberta Flack song "Killing Me Softly with His Song", performed strongly in other territories, topping the singles charts in Australia, Austria, Germany and the United Kingdom, among several others.
"Ready or Not" peaked at number one in the UK and at number three in Sweden. "No Woman, No Cry" – a cover of the Bob Marley & The Wailers song of the same name – topped the singles chart in New Zealand. The Fugees collaborated with singer Bounty Killer on the single "Hip-Hopera" and recorded the single "Rumble in the Jungle" for the soundtrack to the film When We Were Kings in 1997: although they have not released any studio albums since The Score, a compilation album, Greatest Hits, was released in 2003, and spawned the single "Take It Easy".
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 Fugees members Lauryn Hill and Pras, along with Jean's siblings' group Melky Sedeck; 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). Released in 2000, Jean's second solo album The Ecleftic: 2 Sides II a Book 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.
Following the 9/11 attacks, Jean participated in the benefit concert America: A Tribute to Heroes, contributing a cover of the Bob Marley song "Redemption Song". His 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, Sak Pasé Presents: Welcome to Haïti (Creole 101) (released in the U.S. by Koch Records). Most of its songs are in his native language of Haitian Creole like "Fanm Kreyòl" with the French Caribbean Admiral T. Jean also figured on the album Mozaik Kreyòl of this one in the song "Secret Lover". He then covered Creedence Clearwater Revival's song "Fortunate Son" for the soundtrack of the film The Manchurian Candidate (2004) and wrote the song "Million Voices" for the film Hotel Rwanda (2004).