No matter how far you go, if you can't go back to the essence, you're not sayin' nothin'. The essence for me is hip-hop. But the hip-hop community I came up in isn't a loyal community.

Mama, you know you raised me with no father figure. I wanna take this time to thank you, even though I'm doing life.

I want people to experience what it's like being from Haiti, coming to America, being Wyclef - multicultural, multilingual.

The thing which America allows you to be is it's the country of opportunities.

Michael Jackson was my musical God. He made me believe that all things are possible, and through real and positive music. He can live forever! I love Michael Jackson. God Bless him.

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 grew up in a Caribbean family household, so the parents are always right. My father smacked me up til I was 20. It was a strict household.