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.
I'm like Cab Calloway: I love the entertainment, and I've loved entertaining people ever since I was little.
Wyclef is a musician that tried to unite as many musicians at once as possible. I am trying to be successful at that. The greatest challenge is that, I just got arrested for protesting in NYC for cutting the school budgets... And I think that it's important to stand up. Schools are important.
I was a jazz major in high school, in an all-jazz band. No matter what I do, it features my musical influences.
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.
My daddy was a minister, my grandfather was a voodoo priest, my uncle was a mason; I was raised with a lot of studies.
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.
'Masquerade' is the autobiography of Wyclef Jean. A lot of people know me through my work with Carlos Santana or Destiny's Child, winning all those Grammy Awards, but you do not know what is going on inside me.
Bob Marley stood for universal peace and love. He tried to break racial barriers.
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.
When I'm rhyming it's all in my head... Like the slaves, when they were picking cotton, they would block out their minds. They would sing.
You know, I'm a modern day Harry Belafonte; I got the swagger of the island.
My grandfather was a voodoo priest. A lot of my life dealt with spirituality. I can close my eyes and remember where I come from.
