Wyclef Jean Quotes

It was important to me to go back to the grungy, because all of a sudden you get excited again, 'cause there's another whole dimension of 'Clef that you wasn't expecting to hear.

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.

I'm cheap, and I'm proud of it!

I'm hands-on with everything, always trying to reach the real people.

My battle raps couldn't get me groceries from the supermarket.

I've known Clinton for probably the last year that he was in office and stuff. The vibe that I always got from Clinton was, you-know, he never gave me a president-vibe.

I'm like Cab Calloway: I love the entertainment, and I've loved entertaining people ever since I was little.

Once you're done in hip-hop, you're done.

I hear them playing Elvis, they on they way to Graceland. But they don't scare me, I'm in the trunk.

When you find the talent, it's always raw, and when you put the talent in the formula, you get the Knocks.

Once we revolutionize the music industry, then we can revolutionize our communities and everything in the world, 'cause what happens is, the communities are listening to the music.

Every generation is gonna keep changing, and you just have to embrace the change.

I think it's cool to do stuff in a different language. Basically, I learned English through listening to rap. A lot of people think it's funny. But it's true; I used to try to get the accents.

There's not a hip-hop artist that didn't snatch of piece of Bob Marley. It's totally impossible.

I've never really [written] something that was inspired.

All that violence in the world, we need to stop that

In the beginning I had women problems, 'cause you know, I represent for the guys. But I was actin' a fool, whilin' out. I'm not sayin' I don't while out anymore. I'm not gonna lie to you.

You might see a female, and she triggers something, or you see an old lady walking down the street, she triggers something. You go to Africa, you see the vibes, that triggers something.

I don't see no more Billie Holidays, no more Marvin Gayes, no more Smokey Robinsons. I don't even see no more Nirvanas.

What happens is we're all gonna return to dirt, so at the end of the day we're all equal.

My parents were Christian.

I was looking for Quincy Jones, that's who I was obsessed with. Watching Mike [Jackson], I always knew that I had to be a showman on stage, because when people come to you live you always want them to come back. You gotta give them something to remember.

It's important, when you see darkness, to understand that there's light ahead of that, and I'm the living testimony of that, you dig?

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

It was important that I became successful. People say they do it for the love, and yes, you do it for the love, but you want to be successful

I haven't accomplished nothing yet - I have a long way to go.

When I rap, I get to express myself in a way where putting words together is like poetry, and sometimes it's better to talk in certain expressions than sing, you know? So I love, I love to rhyme when I want to express certain things.

Me and my father went through a war period where we wasn't talking. He wanted me to go to theology school - I didn't want to go. I wanted to do music. I told him I was a minister through music.

I'm the hip-hop Quincy Jones of today

I know that the nice shines I have on is going to pass. The nice cars will pass. All that will stay is the music and the work. That's where I get the inspiration to help people out and work

I was a jazz major in high school, in an all-jazz band. No matter what I do, it features my musical influences.

I'm 27 years old. I'm going to go into Hollywood really arrogant. I'll be breaking a lot of rules. It's going to be hot.

I always want to know what's wrong with you, why you ain't smiling. That's just my character; I just love people and want to see people having a good time.

I decided to do what I do when I was 2 years old. At 2 years old, you know, I heard the sound of a drum playing in the village, and I found my own drum and just picked it up and started playing, the worst song ever written by Wyclef Jean.But it actually started a vibe.

I do music for the love of it, and I've been doing it from a very young age: about 11.

My daddy was a minister, my grandfather was a voodoo priest, my uncle was a mason; I was raised with a lot of studies.

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.

America is a melting pot of immigrants. So actually, if you took all of the immigrants outside of America, you'd be missing a lot of flavor, starting with the food, with the culture, with the dance, with everything.

If I can't take five years out to serve my country as president, then everything I've been singing about, like equal rights, doesn't mean anything.

What I'm trying to do is break the genre from what is rap and what is music.

When the Fugees were big, we made a whole lot of money, and what happened was that I saved my money and never spent it.

What I picked up on Michael Jackson - because I study people when I watch them - the way that he counts his rhythm with his feet and his neck at the same time is crazy... so he's hearing multiple things at once. And I don't know anybody who does that.

It will be true work that the kids can follow, as opposed to a facade of you doin' something, and you're doin' nothing.

For me, before I go on stage, it all depends. Might be a girl, might be an edible, might be a verse, might be somebody mixing something in my drink without me knowing - hopefully that won't happen tonight.