All through his Grammy-winning profession as a rapper, musician, songwriter and producer, a lot of Wyclef Jean’s recorded output highlights Jamaican music tradition’s huge affect. There’s the Fugees (Wyclef, Ms. Lauryn Hill, Pras Michel) masking Bob Marley’s “No Lady No Cry”; his co-writing/co-producing a reggae hit for Whitney Houston (“Your Love Is My Love”); beginning his personal Jamaican model sound system, Refugee Sound; and making dub plates, the specialised recordings which might be important to ‘killing’ an opponent in a sound conflict. But he’s by no means recorded a reggae album — that’s, till now.
One Night time in Kingston is Wyclef’s debut roots reggae enterprise, recorded at The Compound in Kingston, Jamaica, a studio/rehearsal house owned by reggae artist Tom Jones, a.ok.a. Panic, the album’s govt producer. Panic can be a author on the mission and a featured artist on the observe “Strolling to Greater Floor.” “I’ve recognized Panic for over 20 years; he mentioned, ‘yo, we want a Wyclef Jean reggae album,’ so he introduced me into the studio,” Wyclef defined. “I don’t know when it’s popping out. I by no means put a date on music as a result of meaning it isn’t good. Music needs to be like a Lauryn Hill album, one of the best album of all time.”
On the 2024 BET Awards on Sunday (June 30), Wyclef shared the stage with Hill on the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles, serving to shut out the present alongside her son, YG Marley. Ms. Hill’s solely studio album, the diamond-certified The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, hit at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, gained the album of the yr Grammy in 1999 and was named “one of the best album of all time” by Apple Music on Might 22. Three days after the most recent honor, Billboard sat down with Wyclef inside a spacious villa in Discovery Bay, Jamaica, to debate One Night time in Kingston. Wyclef was on the island to host the Sashi Expertise live performance later that night time; John Store Data, owned by Sashi co-founder Duwayne John, will launch One Night time in Kingston with an as-of-yet unannounced label/distribution companion. Panic says the primary single will drop in July.
“Panic is a genius, and the album’s combos are insane,” gives Wyclef. “There’s a observe with me, (veteran reggae singer) Luciano and (Ghanaian dancehall/Afrobeats artist) Stonebwoy. That’s Haiti, Jamaica and Africa on one observe, by no means been finished earlier than. I’ve a tune with (dancehall artist) Jada Kingdom: we related on the Caribbean Music Awards (hosted by Wyclef in August 2023.) As a sound (system) man, I wished to function younger Jamaican artists. That’s my pulse, rocking with the youth, getting their power on the market.”
Wyclef interrupted our interview to choose up his vibrating cellphone, which signaled the arrival of Lauryn Hill’s dub plate of “Ex-Issue,” the second single from Miseducation. As a substitute of the romantic difficulties depicted within the authentic, the lyrics to Hill’s new dub are aimed toward a rival sound system: “no sound can conflict like Refugee, and nobody ever will,” sings Hill with the impassioned soulfulness heard on the unique. “Ex-Issue” is one among a number of custom-made recordings Wyclef ready for the Sashi internet hosting gig (which additionally included Wyclef doing handstands, leaping into the gang and obliging followers with selfies and calling an viewers member onstage to freestyle lyrics). Instantly after listening to the “Ex-Issue” dub plate, an ecstatic Wyclef thanked Lauryn, through voice observe, as solely he may: “Ms. Hill, I simply need to go away Jamaica and provide you with a thousand kisses; you may have the fences up, the canines out, I get by means of each motherf–ker!”
Wyclef resumed our dialog by explaining the impression Jamaican sound programs have had on his musical endeavors, together with Fugees’ 1996 debut, The Rating. “I used to be launched to sound system tradition at 14 once I heard a tape by (Jamaica’s) Stone Love,” Wyclef recalled. “Sound programs convey an eclectic musical mix; the selector will be taking part in reggae after which go into (Eurythmics’) ‘Candy Desires (Are Made from This).’ That’s like my eclectic love for music. Any person saying that is rock, that is rap, that is nation, my mind doesn’t register that. My mind registers, I both love or hate the tune.”
Wyclef compares the Billboard 200-topping The Rating to a sound system tape. “Ms. Hill launched me to the depths of soul music, I launched her to sound conflict tradition, that’s what’s so dope about it,” Wyclef continued. “We initially did ‘Killing Me Softly’ as a dub plate, with lyrics like ‘killing a sound boy along with his sound.’ Once we despatched it for clearance, individuals had been like, ‘what’s it? we are able to’t clear this.’ (Brooklyn sound system) King Addies’ selectors Child Face and Tony Matterhorn minimize the primary Fugees dub plate for ‘Fug-Gee-La’ for his or her conflict with LP Worldwide. Attending that conflict modified my life. I used to be like, ‘oh sh-t, now I need to construct my sound and acquire dub plates.’”
Born in Haiti, the world’s first free, Black-led republic, Wyclef (who ran for the presidency of the Caribbean nation in 2010) immigrated to the U.S. at 9 years previous. He grew up listening to hip-hop and successful college rap battles. A self-taught musician who performs 14 devices, teenaged Wyclef additionally performed upright bass in a jazz band, sang within the choir and listened to heavy steel, nation and classical music. As an artist/producer, he’s touched on all genres with a diverse, in depth record of collaborators, from Avicii to the New York Philharmonic to Shakira. Wyclef’s immersion in Jamaican tradition hues a big swathe of his catalog. The most important shock surrounding One Night time In Kingston is that Wyclef hasn’t beforehand recorded a reggae album.
“Clef’s roots are in Jamaica as a lot as they’re in Haiti, he has synergy with the individuals,” commented Duwayne John as he performed One Night time In Kingston for Billboard at The Compound; “One Within the Chamber,” that includes Jamaican singer Lila Iké, laments a failed relationship and was the primary observe Wyclef recorded there. “The power was proper and from that observe got here the whole album,” Duwayne remarks.
The album’s reggae rhythms had been performed reside by The Compound Band, who individually tour with marquee Jamaican artists together with Stephen Marley and Buju Banton. With Panic working in Kingston and Wyclef primarily based within the U.S., One Night time In Kingston got here collectively through digital communication. “The musicians play the music, I ship it to Wyclef, and we speak in regards to the path. Our mindsets and writing kinds are related, that’s why making this album was easy,” explains Panic, who then shared their intentional strategy. “The album is reggae with parts of [what] Clef calls that ‘Travis Scott reggae.’ Youngsters are turned off by the identical previous reggae their grandparents listened to. YG Marley (son of Lauryn Hill and Rohan Marley) took his grandfather’s tune (Bob Marley’s ‘Disaster’) and made it new (‘Reward Jah within the Moonlight,’ which peaked at No. 34 on the Scorching 100). Even earlier than YG broke, we knew it’s that ‘now’ factor that has been lacking from reggae.”
Wyclef is engaged on his first Refugee Sound tape highlighting his assortment of dub plates that features Whitney Houston, Michael Jackson and Kenny Rogers. A mixtape of unreleased Fugees materials can be slated for launch, which coincides with the not too long ago introduced Ms. Lauryn Hill and the Fugees 2024 tour dates, the place they’ll carry out choices from Miseducation and The Score. Wyclef confirms that Fugees’ lineup is undamaged though Pras Michel is awaiting sentencing following his April 2023 conviction on 10 prison fees, together with conspiracy and witness tampering. “Pras toured with us in 2023, he’ll be touring with us this yr,” notes Wyclef. “Inform all people who missed us final yr — Fugees are choosing again up. You need to catch us now.”