Wyclef Jean

Future rapper, producer and talented singer-songwriter Wyclef Jean was born in Croix-des-Bouquets, Haiti, the poorest country of the Western Hemisphere. His adoptive father was a pastor. He called the son in honor of a famous English religious activist and theologian of the fourteenth century John Wycliffe. At the age of nine, Wyclef with his family moved to Brooklyn, New York, then to New Jersey. There the boy started playing the guitar and listening to jazz. In 1987, Jean, his friend Prakazrel Michel and classmate Lauryn Hill formed a hip-hop command Tranzlator Crew, later renamed in Fugees - from Haitian slang word for "refugees". In 1994, Wyclef married to Marie Claudinette Pierre-Jean, a fashion designer. They have an adoptive daughter from Haiti named Angelina Claudinelle after the good family friend, actress Angelina Jolie. The same year Wyclif's hip hop trio released the debut disc Blunted On Reality. It was too innovative, but the Fugees' consecutive work The Score was a sound success.

Around that time, Wyclef announced the beginning of his solo career. He released Presents The Carnival Featuring The Refugee All-Stars (usually called simply The Carnival). The album featured many guest singers and emerged hits Trying To Stay Alive, the interpretation of The Bee Gees' Stayin' Alive, and Gone Till November, recorded with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. Fugees still existed at that time, but they postponed the third release for several times as all the members were more interested in the solo careers. In 2000, Jean presented his second full-length The Ecleftic: 2 Sides II A Book, featuring a duet 911 with Mary J. Blige. By that moment, Fugees was disbanded and Wyclef immediately got down to his third prodigy - Masquerade, which was on the shelves in 2002. This eclectic album featured guest appearances of Tom Johns on vocals and Israeli violinist Miri Ben-Ari. The work also contained reworked songs by Bob Dylan and Frankie Valli. One year later Wyclef returned with two more discs: freewheeling The Preacher's Son and a collection of traditional Haitian folk music Welcome To Haiti: Creole 101. From that year, he also started contributing to various film soundtracks.

In 2003, the Greatest Hits compilation by Fugees anticipated the short reunion that lasted from 2004 to 2005. The group went on a tour and planned a new album, but it was never released. By 2006, Jean recommended himself as the eclectic approach propagandist in music with an eccentric behavior - for example, at one concert he set on fire his guitar and played The Star Spangled Banner in honor of Jimi Hendrix. He is also known as an extremely talented producer. He worked with a long list of celebrities - Akon, Queen, Carlos Santana, The Prodigy, Rammstein, Mya, Shakira, Destiny's Child, Timbaland, Whitney Houston, The Black Eyed Peas to name a few. In 2007 Wyclef released disc Carnival II: Memoirs Of An Immigrant, thought out as the continuation of his debut work. It is fulfilled in the same tradition of fiery duets with guest celebrities, wide range of musical styles and contains a handful of potential hits. In 2009 Wyclef issued his album From The Hut, To The Projects To The Man. While creating this record, Jean worked with Timbaland, Lil' Kim and Eve.