457 Wyclef Jean: The Making of Greatness in Music & Life

"Music is a vibration before a language." - Wyclef Jean If you enjoyed this episode, check out show notes, video, and more at http://lewishowes.com/457 Get more from Lewis! Get my New York Times Bestselling book, Make Money Easy! Get The Greatness Mindset audiobook on SpotifyText Lewis AIYouTubeInstagramWebsiteTiktokFacebookX

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Lewis Howes?

  This is episode number 457 with multi-platinum artist Wyclef Jean.

• 0:07Lewis Howes?

  Welcome to the School of Greatness. My name is Lewis Howes, former pro athlete turned lifestyle entrepreneur. And each week, we bring you an inspiring person or message to help you discover how to unlock your inner greatness. Thanks for spending some time with me today. Now let the class begin.

• 0:33Lewis Howes?

  Welcome everyone today to our interview with Wyclef Jean. I am so pumped. Right when Wyclef walked in the studio, he saw that I had some on it kettlebells and we started to do a little workout together. He lifted like a 100 pound kettlebell. I had like a 50 pounder and he was a machine. Then he went into play some music. We talked about jazz. We rapped out about the jazz world. And talked about my brother and his experience in jazz and man, we set this up for an incredible experience for you. I'm super pumped for you to dive in, to listen and to wrap your mind around what you're about to hear. For those who don't know who Wyclef Jean is, he is a lyricist, singer, musician, producer, poet, songwriter.

• 1:15Lewis Howes?

  And what I just learned about him, he's a calisthenics champion as well. Now, the music that Wyclef has written, performed and produced, both as a solo superstar and as a founder and guiding member of the Fugees, has been a consistently powerful pop cultural force for over two decades. In 1996, the Fugees released their monumental album, The Score. And that album, Wyclef created in studio in his uncle's basement in New Jersey. And it hit number one on the Billboard charts, spawned a trio of smash singles and is now certified six times platinum. But what I love about Wyclef is he was a child prodigy with a wealth of musical influences from jazz to classical rock to reggae.

• 1:59Lewis Howes?

  And he resisted the pressure to duplicate the same sound and style of that masterwork with the Fugees. Instead, he's launched himself as a producer and solo artist whose work drew from an innovative An eclectic palette that included elements of pop, country, folk, disco, Latin, and electronic music. And after we did this interview, I got the chance to hang out with Wyclef before he performed a set at the YouTube space here in LA. And it was just so fascinating to see how he builds other artists up. He had other artists there that he was collabing with, and it was so cool to see how he engages with other people to lift everyone up around him. And we're going to talk more about that, how he finds the superstars and really supports

• 2:44Lewis Howes?

  them, and what it does to keep him staying at the top 20 years later after he hit number one with his album, With the Fugees. And some of the things we're covering today are how music saved his life from growing up in the roughest neighborhoods of Haiti and in New York City, the stories of how Wyclef helped Beyonce, Shakira, and other superstars write their breakout hits, why he ran for president of Haiti, and how he continues to give back to his country now, and also how he almost got assassinated. Then we talk about how to communicate and relate to the rising generation through art and creativity, also what it takes to come back to an industry you've left for years, that and so much more.

• 3:27Lewis Howes?

  Guys, we wrapped it out for a while, and I hope to bring him back on sometime in the future because there's so much wealth of information and stories that he has to share, and I know you're going to love this one. Before we dive in, I want to give a shout out to the reviewer of the week. Now, we've got over 1,300 five-star reviews over on iTunes, and all of your reviews matter. They help us stay in the top 100 of the rankings on iTunes, so please head over there and leave a review right now if you find this interview helpful in any way, or if you found this podcast helpful for you, go to iTunes.com/greatness. And the reviewer of the week is from FitRocketScientist, who said, "This podcast rocks. Lewis Howes generates extraordinary content with his guests.

• 4:11Lewis Howes?

  This podcast should be on everyone's top list. The positive energy and years of knowledge shared in each episode make this podcast." Truly great. So the Fit Rocket Scientist, thank you so much for your review. There's dozens of reviews every single week and you were the reviewer of the week. Guys, make sure to share this one out right now. LewisHowes.com/457. We'll send you right to the show notes. You can watch the full video over on YouTube there as well, all the photos and some behind the scenes videos of Wyclef performing and playing in the studio also. Go back to LewisHowes.com/457 after this to watch those.

• 4:52Lewis Howes?

  Share this with your friends right now and without further ado, let me introduce to you the one, the only Wyclef Jean.

• 5:03Speaker 01

  Carnival one, that was a classic was like, it was like your dorm smoking weed album, you know what I mean?

• 5:08Lewis Howes?

  Yep, we were listening to it before.

• 5:10Speaker 01

  Yeah, so, so the three, so now we, Carnival two had, ah, yeah, you listen, that's juvie right there, baby. Hendrix. That's my story right there.

• 5:24Lewis Howes?

  It's good.

• 5:28Lewis Howes?

  So we're listening to the greatest hits.

• 5:30Speaker 01

  It's like your brother's story, you know what I'm saying? Like we, we share that story right there.

• 5:34Lewis Howes?

  You were in juvie?

• 5:36Speaker 01

  I had my whole team was, you know what I mean? More than juvie locked up.

• 5:40Lewis Howes?

  Really? Were you locked up ever?

• 5:41Speaker 01

  That song is a song of choice. Yeah, nah, in the hood, they call me Speedy, baby.

• 5:47Lewis Howes?

  You got away. You know, I almost got, I was never as bad as my brother or probably you, but I was, uh, I luckily I had some wheels and I got away from cops from time when I was like 12. I was just breaking into a, uh, I don't think I've ever told this story, but I was breaking into, are we rolling? Just to make sure the audio's rolling. But I was rolling, um, I was in Delaware, Ohio. So I grew up in Ohio. Small town, north of Columbus.

• 6:11Speaker 01

  Delaware.

• 6:11Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, small town. Ohio Wesleyan University is there and I'm, um, Just like bored, you know, just like a bored kid. And I go to the uh the track at Ohio Wesleyan. And there happens to be like in the arena underneath the track or whatever, the stands, there's like a vending machine. And so I just get the idea to like shake it to see if I can get some change out of it, right? You know what I'm saying? Just trying to get some quarters. Cause I like to go buy baseball cards or whatever. And then um all of a sudden I was with a friend of mine who was a little older than me and all of a sudden he starts like banging it. He's stronger than me. He starts banging. Quarters are coming out, right? Then we find a crowbar and we're like smashing this like the coin box.

• 6:52Lewis Howes?

  It's like uh winning a jackpot, just like flooding out like quarter, quarter, quarter. Then all of a sudden we're banging away for a good 10 minutes, like getting more quarters. And all of a sudden we hear like a sound and it's down the way, we see the cop car close the car. And we sprint. My friend, he was like 16, 17. I was 12 or whatever. He was much faster and more athletic than I was. And uh he, well, there was literally like a 10 foot fence and I've never seen a human jump so high. And he just leaped over and grabbed it and threw himself over. And I was like trying to climb up. And uh somehow we got away though, man. It was crazy.

• 7:27Speaker 01

  Surprise, man. What the human body can do when it feels.

• 7:30Lewis Howes?

  The fear.

• 7:32Speaker 01

  Yeah, when that fear kick in with danger.

• 7:34Lewis Howes?

  Oh, my goodness.

• 7:35Speaker 01

  You'd be surprised.

• 7:36Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, yeah. What was the craziest thing you got into? The craziest, almost trouble?

• 7:40Speaker 01

  No, I mean, you know, I got into mad trouble when I was younger, you know, I always say like my mama bought me a guitar. That saved my life, you know? Coming from Haiti, I'm from a poor environment. I used to eat dirt in the flow, my brother, you know what I mean? Take a donkey to school. The idea of electricity, we didn't have that, you know what I mean? So think of that. I lived like that till I was 10 years old, right? So and we we lived, I mean, our village practically was like called Dirt Village. And we literally where we lived at was like we lived um the the whole village was so small, but.

• 8:15Speaker 01

  Our amusement park was a cemetery.

• 8:19Speaker 01

  If that, you know what I'm saying? I'm just showing you how, where we come from. You feel what I'm saying to you? So we from, that's what I said, like, ain't nothing, nobody could do to me, you know what I'm saying? Like, how can you kill me? I was already dead, man. And I came to life. So you feel me? Cause we from that place where it's forgotten. It's like the land of the lost for real. So coming from that small town, cause even like you could hear of Haiti, but then the small, little, tiny villages of Haiti, you would never know like the names. So for me, you know, so by the time I got to ten, I was, I lived in the projects in Brooklyn. So that was like the first time I saw electricity. I saw a building. I, I ain't even know what that was, right?

• 9:02Speaker 01

  So when, when me and my brother was looking at the city lights, he was like, what's that? I was like, yo, um, that's, uh, that's diamonds. Cause you know, in the village, they told us like America was like, they were so rich in America that like diamonds, you know, they fell from the sky. So it's literally like, so you would think like, it's almost like, we was living like the Indians in primitive times, right? Before, or think about it like, in America, when the war was over and people thought the war still was going on in certain places. That's really how, so, um, so the projects we come from is called Marlboro Projects, Coney Island, you know what I'm saying to you?

• 9:44Speaker 01

  Like, so when I talk on my album, like The Carnival One, and I talk about like, you know, you catch a bullet in your goose, you know? Like, it was real, you know what I'm saying to you? Like at, at, at twelve years old, you pick up your first gun, you know what I mean? Wow. Um, you know, you, you learn how to sell things very quick to a crack fiend. Um, and you know the crack fiend will buy anything for the drugs. So, uh, and then at the same time, you barely speak in English, you know? You getting in elevators. Um smelling like piss, you see what I'm saying to you? Other people getting in the elevator with you, people try to shake you down. Um and then a bodies on the roof like every month. This was Marlboro projects, like so you gotta think about it.

• 10:26Speaker 01

  So once again, I left one extreme, came to another, you know what I'm saying? So in Brooklyn, they killed.

• 10:32Lewis Howes?

  One extreme with nothing to another extreme with a lot more fear and scary stuff.

• 10:35Speaker 01

  Yeah, definitely. But where we came from, so in Brooklyn, um they basically, one of my cousins had got killed. But like we always, you know, we all moved together. And you know, sometimes I always felt like the bullet was for me, you feel me? So, um, but we was very tough. We fought with our hands, we fought with blades, whatever we had. It was like warriors come out the plate for real where we come from. So, um, and I mean, you saw me like out there with you, like the way like, cause I was always like little, you know what I mean? But I take, I'd be like, yo, bring on the biggest guy, bring on Andre the Giant and I'm gonna take him down. And I would take down like the big dudes, cause where we come from is sort of like, you just have a big heart, you know what I'm saying?

• 11:18Speaker 01

  And I was never for, um, people thinking that they're gonna punk little people. So I never used to go for that. Um, the idea of somebody think they're gonna bully a block. Um, so my parents assumed that I would get killed very fast. So we left Brooklyn and they moved us over to New Jersey and, um.

• 11:36Lewis Howes?

  How far from the city?

• 11:37Speaker 01

  So Jersey where we was going to, man, it was like an hour and a half.

• 11:41Lewis Howes?

  Okay.

• 11:41Speaker 01

  Yeah, and, um, and we moved to another place called Newark, New Jersey.

• 11:45Lewis Howes?

  That's just rough.

• 11:46Speaker 01

  Exactly.

• 11:47Lewis Howes?

  I know Newark.

• 11:47Speaker 01

  Yeah, so we moved to like the car theft capital of the world at the time. So that was another movie and a half, you know what I'm saying? So.

• 11:56Lewis Howes?

  How old were you when, when you were in, uh?

• 11:58Speaker 01

  When I was in Newark, I was like fifteen.

• 12:00Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 12:00Speaker 01

  But the thing was every week we back and forth in Brooklyn, cause my family was going like between Brooklyn and New Jersey. And I remember like my mom, literally, I remember she was like, you can get further. With with a guitar than a gun. I remember those words. You see what I'm saying to you? Cause um it was like, I always felt like I had to have like either like a gun or a machete. Yeah. You're carrying around a gun or a knife all the time? Yeah, yeah, I used to have guns, man. You know, yeah, twenty twos. When you were sixteen? Oh, yeah, yeah, we didn't play. You feel me? Holy cow. Yeah, I mean, that's why. I'm talking about beating up a vending machine. Well, that's why we don't glorify it. That's why the Fujis never glorified.

• 12:43Speaker 01

  Like, so when someone is telling me like, yo, um, I'll shoot you, my boys will shoot you, we so crack. We, I'm like, yeah, so what? Like, who didn't do that in the hood? Like, tell me a story I don't know, like, like, we did that, but we not doing that no more. Like, what we're doing is we're elevating the youth. So I never, I never speak about like, I never like glorify. That's why whether if it's Crips, Blood, Latin Kings, it don't matter. Like, my story is a deep one, like, you know, I mean, I, I go to any hood anytime. Because it's, it's more like a respect factor because I know if I didn't make it, I would have been one of them, right? So I celebrate life. And then when I go see them, like, they're like, yo, Clef, you know, we definitely,

• 13:29Speaker 01

  we check for you because we know you ain't just gonna give us a speech and then go back to your mansion. Like, we know, like, we see you in the ground in Haiti, like, we see how you move, like, you ran for president, you almost got assassinated. You got shot at, you know, so, so, um, so at times I pinch myself because to just be here and to be alive. And every time people come to my show, they'll be like, yo, man, show is so crazy, you're such a nice guy. You know, and I'm like, yeah, because of where I come from, I have to celebrate life because eighty percent of my homies, they not like in, in the song Hendrix, it's a song of choice. I was like, yo, when I was playing Jimi Hendrix in the trap,

• 14:12Speaker 01

  them dudes was in the trap, you know, wanting to be El Chapo. So all of this stuff is around you. And it's real. It's not like a movie. It's sort of like you will be tempted. Because if you're working at McDonald, I remember I was working at Burger King, dude, and my cousins used to pull up in the BM, you feel me? Just to mess with me like, yo, why Clef Jean there?

• 14:38Speaker 01

  We'll have seventeen packs of fries, four whoppers. Don't forget, man, a hardworking man is sucker, hurry up, bro. And, you know, and then they, you know, and it's your fam, you know what I'm saying? And you're tempted, dude, I mean, you're a teen, you see this, you see this car? You're like, yo, man, like, you want that. So what is it that make you be like, okay, you know what? I'm gonna keep working in this fast food restaurant. I'm gonna be a security guard with a flashlight. Right, right, right. Like, you do all of these things and, uh, and then, uh, and you believe in the myth. Because it's a myth, because it's not a reality, because where you from, you don't see nobody making it but these guys. It's like the pimps, the drug dealers, you know what I mean? And ninety-nine. Around the block, yeah.

• 15:23Speaker 01

  Yeah, around the block. And then, most of the preachers where we come from are pimps anyway. So, this is what we grew up, what we saw. So, for you to be like, okay, man, I'm not gonna do any of this? Yo, it takes a lot of will. Wow. Crazy, man. How did you have that will to know that you were gonna make something yourself besides doing what everyone else is doing? Well, all I knew was, whenever I did music, I escaped, right? So I have, I have one of my brothers, he came from Haiti with me. He's a lawyer today. I remember we used to be on the, in the project roof when we first came from Haiti and we was on the roof. And, um, I mean, we looked at each other and I was like, what are you gonna be? And he was like, yo, I'm gonna be a lawyer. Really?

• 16:07Speaker 01

  And we speak in Creole, not even English. He was like, yo, you're gonna be a, something, be a gangster, man. Because I gotta get mama out of this neighborhood. And then, it's good you're gonna be a lawyer, so you can watch me. Get me out of jail. So, and he's a lawyer today. So, for me, like, all of these realities, like, we, we faced them together. And, uh, and my escape was music. So like, music was my escape. And...

• 16:35Speaker 01

  I used to collect like baseball cards when I was younger, right? I had like the Reggie Jacksons. Cause you could collect so many ball cards, right? Cause I heard you saying like baseball card. So we used to, cause you would, depending on the year of the card you collected, you know, it's worth a lot of money. Absolutely, yeah, of course. Exactly. So we would, so that was like some of the hustle that we was doing. But for me, whenever I was doing music, it completely took me away from everything. And so being like my father was a minister, like Marvin Gaye's father. He did not want you listening to rap music, everything. So the household was very Christian theology, you know?

• 17:18Speaker 01

  My name actually is named after, my name is Wyclef Jean. Wyclef Jean is an Englishman. He's, he's a, he's a Protestant. So Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, the first English translation is from Wyclef Jean in the time of like Martin Luther. So I'm just showing you how deep like this dude naming me, and he named my brother after like a Swedish priest. My brother got a crazy name. So this how, and this dude, my dad from Haiti, I'm like, you super twisted dude. Like you from Haiti, you naming me after English dude. You named my brother. So just to show you how religious this dude was. So then we could not play, the idea of rap music, he called it drug dealer music.

• 18:02Speaker 01

  You could not listen to this stuff. So literally we had, I had a Walkman. And then the Walkman, you know what I'm saying? We had a little radio and that's how I used to sneak and get the cassettes from the hood and put it in the Sony Walkman and listen to it. And then my brother, he was different. He was listening to other things and I was listening. So he would come to me and be like, yo. Uh, you need to check this out.

• 18:27Lewis Howes?

  Hmm.

• 18:28Speaker 01

  It's it's it's a crazy band. And I'm like, yo, who that? He like the police. I'm like, man, I ain't I don't got love for no police. I ain't listening to nothing called the police. He was like, nah, check this out. This the police synchronicity. You're gonna dig it. And the cassette was a black and white cassette. It said the police and it says synchronicity on it. And then I put it on and then I was like, yo, this is rad, man. It's cool. He was like, yeah, it's this dude from England. I think his name Sting. So people, we're just in the hood discovering all this stuff. So he was more into. He was putting me up on one side of music he was listening to. And then I would be like, yo, check this out. You know what I'm saying? Yo, this guy, he's a battle rapper. He be going around smacking people.

• 19:13Speaker 01

  Uh, after he wins battles, or if you're gonna battle him, he'll just show up and take you out. He was like, yo, what's his name? I'd be like, yo, it's this guy. His name is KRS-One. He from the Bronx. And then so we just share and we kept so all of this sharing. While killing is going on outside, somehow we was able to escape all of that. And I I think I always say like to today, and it's sort of like, so if it's Jeopardy. It's like, give me or my brother music for five hundred. We can't lose. Because whether if it's classical, country, blues, you know, it's sort of like. Every kid has something they're obsessed with. And people be like, how are you so eclectic and also? I said, look, that's like my little nephews. They'll sit in front of a video game.

• 19:58Speaker 01

  And play it all day and can play with people in all parts of the world. And they're real good in the video. I said, whatever part of the brain you decide to put your mind to, you gonna rock.

• 20:09Lewis Howes?

  Absolutely. Man, that's amazing. Who was the most influential artist for you growing up? Either artist or song that really shaped you. I mean, obviously, it all shaped you, but.

• 20:18Speaker 01

  Yeah, I would say for me, it was probably, uh, Bob Marley, um, Bob Dylan. And, uh, like Jimi Hendrix. Yeah, those was like, I was in that. And then. And then the other side where I got obsessed with, so you had that side and then later on when I turned sixteen, it was Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, and this drummer called Art Blakey, like the way he just used to play. And then I was like, man, and Quincy Jones. So I was like, yo, I was like, Quincy Jones made me think like deeper than jazz. He made me think like, okay, if you learn every part of this jazz,

• 21:00Speaker 01

  you will have a life, like, uh, he, cause he showed you, like, you can have a life past jazz, right? Cause the best jazz musicians are just the best in the world. I mean, but it's like calculus. It's amazing. It's like another level genius. Yeah, you learn calculus, but the average norm don't use it. They use addition and subtraction. So you're weird. It's not mainstream. Yeah, you weird to a big portion of the world. Like you show up and you speaking a coded language, you know what I'm saying? But Quincy Jones was like, yo, if you can get past the coded language, and this is how you could do popular music. There's someone called Michael Jackson. So you're studying all of this, you know what I'm saying? And then you start to believe that you can do it.

• 21:44Speaker 01

  Wow, wow, man. And who was the most influential, um, parent for you growing up? Well, I would say definitely my mama. Um, my mom was, um, she was softer than my dad. My dad was tough. But my mom, you know, I was like a mama boy, cause she always, cause I always told her I'm gonna get you out the hood. And she was like, how?

• 22:08Speaker 01

  And I was like, cause I'm gonna be a big star. And she was like, a star from Haiti? I was like, yeah. She was like, well, name one star from Haiti that has been successful in your entire lifetime. Matter of fact, let's go back to who's the most famous Haitian. And then I was like, well, Toussaint Loverture. Uh, in Wyclef Jean.

• 22:31Speaker 01

  But I was saying that when I was little to her. She was like, you're so crazy. But, so my mom, she had that belief, man. I know she had that belief at a young age. And she was, she definitely, you know, I love my pops. My pops was cool, but he was, it was like tough love. And my mom, I could always escape to her.

• 22:50Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, she was like your music.

• 22:52Speaker 01

  Yeah, definitely.

• 22:53Lewis Howes?

  I know a couple of Haitian, well, semi well-known Haitians. I played against, uh, in college, I played against a wide receiver. And Pierre Garçon. Who's now in the NFL for the last 12 years.

• 23:03Speaker 01

  Garçon.

• 23:04Lewis Howes?

  Garçon. And then a buddy of mine, Caduce. He was a host on TRL on MTV for about six, seven years.

• 23:11Speaker 01

  I know Caduce very well.

• 23:13Lewis Howes?

  Buddy of mine. He's, I think he's Canadian, but he's from Haiti originally.

• 23:17Speaker 01

  Yeah, that's my man. Shout out to Caduce.

• 23:19Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, Caduce is a good guy.

• 23:22Lewis Howes?

  Well, I didn't even do really an official introduction, but welcome to the School of Greatness. We've got Wyclef in the house. Lyricist, singer, musician, producer, poet, songwriter, and before we even started, found out you were calisthenics champion, fitness guru.

• 23:38Speaker 01

  Baby, we don't play. In the hood, you gotta, in the hood, you can't play.

• 23:42Lewis Howes?

  I love it.

• 23:43Speaker 01

  You get that monkey bar, you gotta go for it, man.

• 23:45Lewis Howes?

  I love it, man. And also, you know, I love that you're, you know, we were talking about how my brother loves jazz and that's really kind of the foundation. You really got into jazz early on.

• 23:55Speaker 01

  Yeah, big time.

• 23:55Lewis Howes?

  And you learned, self-taught, 12 different instruments, is that right?

• 23:59Speaker 01

  Yeah, man.

• 24:00Lewis Howes?

  And I think that's even cooler to know that you came from like learning jazz and appreciating it. And it's because most people don't. They get into pop music just by getting into it.

• 24:08Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 24:09Lewis Howes?

  So I think it's really cool.

• 24:10Speaker 01

  Yeah, no, definitely.

• 24:12Lewis Howes?

  Man, and you've done, I mean, you've done so many, I mean, you're, uh, you're, the facts about you go on and on. I mean, you were playing, uh, the Santana song. Um, what's that song called?

• 24:23Speaker 01

  Oh, Maria Maria.

• 24:24Lewis Howes?

  Maria Maria before. You wrote that song. You co-wrote, uh, Shakira's Hips Don't Lie, which was like a global phenomenon for a number of years and still.

• 24:33Speaker 01

  Well, it's funny because the Shakira song, I wrote it two years prior to Shakira. It's uh, you ever seen the movie Havana Nights? It's like a crazy dancing. Yes. It's like they tried to redo Dirty Dancing. Yes, yes. And I actually watched it for the Dirty Dancing parts. So you know what I mean, because I like dancing. Ah, yes. But I did it for Havana Nights on another artist. That's what I was telling you with that whole Quincy Jones scheme. I did it two years ago. Because there was a clef, we need music for a movie. And being up from Haiti, you know, Cuba, it's all in my blood. It's all the same, yeah. So I did this record, man, and it was another artist that I had called Claudette Artes. And Claudette Artes is from a group I had called City High at the time. What would you do if your man was at home?

• 25:22Speaker 01

  Yeah, I have wrote that song. So I was like, she's gonna be the one. So my whole thing was to try to get her to blow up to the next level and use hips don't lie. So we did it, I did it for her. And Clive was like, I don't think this song's a hit. So. Wow. This song just sat there and then two years later. So she sang it and played it and you recorded it? This is what I'll trip you out. If you go back to the Havana Nights soundtrack. Uh huh. Two years prior to Shakira, anyone that's listening, you will hear the exact same song. Song by someone else. That's right. Wow. So I'm showing you like I'm always ahead of my time, I'm an alien. So, but how could you do a song like two years prior now?

• 26:02Speaker 01

  Two years later, I get a call from Donny Iana, he's like, yo, Clef, um, you know, we got the artist Shakira, do you know? I'm like, of course, I know Shakira's there, yo, we need, you know? And then so Charlie Walk, who's like a music guru, he came to the studio. He heard it, started jumping, he was like, yo, let's call Shakira right now. So we called Shakira, I got on the phone and she was like, hello, I Clef, I love this song, I love. So, and then so it's so, it's so funny because I'd be saying, the music business is different than the music.

• 26:37Speaker 01

  Two different things. The music business is Hollywood. It's like, do you wanna be in films? Like, if you wanna be in popular films, that's the music business. Like, the music business don't have no time for no super creativity. Like, it doesn't. Like, it's entertainment. That's, that's, now, lucky you, if you, so that's why they said those that find that middle and are able to do both and, and work out, cuz it's not crea-, you know?

• 27:06Lewis Howes?

  It's not creative doing the music business.

• 27:08Speaker 01

  No, because it's the music business. You gotta have something to show. So, when Shakira said her hips don't lie, and in the video, we saw her hips don't lie. Now, this is show business. That means, okay, let the song begin now, man. We believe this part. So, as a producer too, you grow, you learn, and I was like, wow, it's so funny. It's like, you know, a, a writer who writes a hit movie and, you know, the movies stay underground unless this actor convinces the crowd that, you know what I mean? Some people has those gifts. So, that's how The Hips Don't Lie ended up being like, yo, gigantic. It's like top three of all times.

• 27:47Lewis Howes?

  It's crazy.

• 27:47Speaker 01

  Michael Jackson, uh, Elvis, and Hips Don't Lie. These are like the three biggest airplanes of all time. So, it tripped me out because I was like, yo, this song literally was sitting on the soundtrack. And I always tell people, go back and you'll hear the exact same song. You'll trip out, man.

• 28:04Lewis Howes?

  It's crazy.

• 28:04Speaker 01

  Hilarious.

• 28:05Lewis Howes?

  So, how do you convince someone who says, no, it's not a hit, a big person who's, you know, in the music business, who has a lot of decision making, is like, no, it's not a good song? And then, how do you bring it back to life?

• 28:17Speaker 01

  Well, I think that, you know, we all need coaches. And to get to the Super Bowl, right? Or to win the NBA championship, or to win the World Cup, you still need the coach. And Clive Davis is one of the best coaches in the game. Now, like, we all seen Super Bowl, like, we all watch NBA, like, so the coach can give a play, and...

• 28:46Speaker 01

  Let's say out of ten, maybe he misses two, but his record's for eight, right? That's Clive. So at the end of the day, he's still Clive and the fact that he was like, I needed you to do this song was enough to put me in that play.

• 29:03Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 29:03Speaker 01

  And in that play, he might not have seen that I was about to dunk and that's okay, but he knew that, okay, Kleff's a starter. So as long as he puts me in the starter, you know, and um, so I, I, I see that, I respect him. You know, he's like a godfather. You know, he was like at my dad's funeral. He's one of them execs that actually care for artists. You know what I mean? So, um, but I was like, man, this thing is a hit. I could feel it in my bones. I think this thing is a culture phenomenon. But when the godfather tells you no, so you sit back and then you wait your turn, right? And then I was like, yo, coach, put me in the game, put me in the game. And then Donnie Ianna put me right back in the game. It was like, yeah, I said, okay, we gonna get it.

• 29:42Lewis Howes?

  You're speaking my language about all the coaching and the sports business. I love it.

• 29:46Speaker 01

  Man, my analogies though, I mean, sports and music. I mean, that's all day. Like you see, the relevancy is crazy. I remember when Kobe, we was at Sony, you know what I mean? And like Kobe.

• 30:00Lewis Howes?

  Kobe can play, right?

• 30:01Speaker 01

  Yeah. Kobe could play. Kobe was doing, I remember Kobe was doing an album. I remember that. I remember Shaq.

• 30:10Lewis Howes?

  Oh, yeah.

• 30:10Speaker 01

  Shaq was doing an app. This is all the time, like the Fujis. So we all had, so this was all going on at Sony. And so, once again, there's a whole thing that they always say like, um, great sport guys want to be musicians and we musicians want to be sports. It's.

• 30:26Lewis Howes?

  Yeah. Like the NBA All-Star game, I had Andy Grammer on recently and he was like Snapchatting the last weekend about at the end of the All-Star game. Like just playing basketball. It's like all he cares about.

• 30:37Speaker 01

  Yeah, big time.

• 30:38Lewis Howes?

  So funny. Here's what I love about you, Eklav. You are, you're a big star in your own right. You've written so many of your own great songs, but you also find and develop other talent that aren't big. And you kind of break them is what I'm hearing you say. You're really good at finding people. Knowing where to position and put them. And you like to lift people up is what I hear you say. Why, what is that? You know, most artists want the fame for themselves and they want all the recognition and they want to be the biggest. It doesn't seem like you have that in you. You you you got your fame, you've got your gifts, you got your money, but you're elevating the world also.

• 31:13Speaker 01

  Yeah. Well, I mean, really, like, so like the mind of Einstein, right? Relativity. So the thing is,

• 31:22Speaker 01

  we all really need each other. And sometimes we don't really pay attention to it, right? I'm only as good as you are, and you're only as good as I am. And what does that mean? That basically means that each one teach one. So what happens is, you know, we go back to the sports analogy. So Kobe is dope, but there's some young Kobe that could cross on Kobe right now, right? And and and remember when Jordan was at the top, Kobe came and we knew he was like, yo, this kid, but there's something that happens when you embrace, when you embrace. So I always believe like, whether if it's great philosophers, man, it could be something that's written like 2000 years ago. What what is it that when a person was writing

• 32:08Speaker 01

  that makes us still apply these philosophies today? It's because it came from a point of non selfishness. The person was like, let me create something that can inspire a generation to create something and the next generation to create something and continue. So for me, when I met Lauren, Lauren was like barely 14 years old. Yeah. So it was like, I was like, okay, so we, I was like, okay, uh, she has a gift. And coming from the church, being around singers, I was like, okay, she has a gift, we're gonna rock. So.

• 32:42Lewis Howes?

  And how'd you do? How'd you find her or meet her in the first place?

• 32:44Speaker 01

  So I used to do like a lot of off Broadway plays. There was a play I was doing called Club 12. Um, and I remember prize, I was in my daddy's church and he was like, yo, man, I got this group, man. I'm in the studio. I'm doing a song with two girls, but I need a reggae part. And I was like, how the girls look, you know what I'm saying? Cause you know, I thought I was the Haitian Fonzie. I like, how they look, man? How they look? Man, you can't be talking to no girls. I just need you come over here and do this part. So I go into the studio. And I sing the reggae part and the girls is like, well, he's part of the group now. And I was like, yes, I'm part of the group. And how old were you at the time? I was like seventeen. Wow.

• 33:28Speaker 01

  But the thing was, the producer at the time, his name was Kalis Beyon, and Kalis Beyon was the guy doing all of the records for Cool and the Gang. Wow. And he was the one that was like, yo, man, there's some kind of chemistry here. So I was in the hood and he's starin'. Lauren was in the suburbs. So I was like, you know what? I can't be selling drugs here in the trap. I gotta figure out something. So I told every drug dealer in my neighborhood, whoever was hustling. I said, look, because everybody's hustling, but they trying to get out of the hustle, man. Right. So I was like, look, I'm gonna, so my dad kicked me out the house. And I, oh, I went to my uncle's house and I took over my uncle's basement.

• 34:12Speaker 01

  And me and my cousin Jerry, we created, and Renee, we created the Booger Basement. So now we in the hood, we in the trap, crack house on this side. And I never closed my basement. I said, look, anybody that needs this beat, come to me, I'm the man. So I was the Dr. Dre in my hood. I was like, yo, and then, remember I have an advantage. I play a bunch of instruments too. So it wasn't like I was just gonna, like, I knew how to put music around. And then the person I would have sing all of the hooks was Lauren. So I was like, yo, so this started a whole big thing. So, so many people in the hood got demos of Lauren, like, voice right now, probably listening to this. So, at a young age.

• 34:53Speaker 01

  So this sort of like spurred like the whole idea, um, which became the Fugees. And then I remember like after that, um, I had got a phone call because people saw I had the pulse. So they was like, yo, we got these four girls, they're in a hotel room. And, you know, they, um, the record is stuck, man, and it's not charting, and.

• 35:18Speaker 01

  We need you to do the same thing you did for Lauren. So I go to this hotel room and it's four girls. And um, and they're like, yo, what you want me to, what you want us to sing? And I was like, yo, sing a church song for me. And the one girl, she starts amazing, you know, she sings this church song. And that happens to be Beyonce. And the group happens to be Destiny's Child. So man, I can keep going on and on and on and on. There's so many, um, there's a whole myth like before you blow up, you gotta see Uncle Clef. That's what they be like, yo, as long as you meet Uncle Clef in some Gothic space, you're bound to do 500 million.

• 35:56Lewis Howes?

  Right, right, right. Is there any artist that you have, uh, that's come across your path? That maybe you're like, eh, I'm not sure about them. And you kind of like passed on them or you were like, weren't, you know, working with them in some capacity? And then they went on to be like this big hit?

• 36:13Speaker 01

  Well, I knew that artist. It wasn't sort of, I had to go with what I felt like I can handle more so. You see what I'm saying? So.

• 36:26Lewis Howes?

  So maybe it could be a big hit, but you couldn't handle it?

• 36:28Speaker 01

  No, it was sort of like, the industry's a big industry, right? So you got people who's great at doing hip hop, people that's great at doing reggae, people that's good at. So it's like, exactly. So I remember being in the studio with 50 Cent. If 50 Cent is listening, he will remember this story, right? Because when I was in the studio with 50 Cent, there was a group called Fem Fatale, right? I have one of the original, 50 Cent, actually, I have a record, right? With 50 Cent in my group, GMB. Watch how far back this goes. 50 ain't blow up yet. GMB was the kid singing Maria, Maria and Santana's joint.

• 37:08Lewis Howes?

  No way.

• 37:08Speaker 01

  And then I just was like, 50 Cent is raw talent. I wasn't trying to sign 50 Cent. That wasn't the mission. It's to the point of what you said. I just thought he was incredible and I felt like, yo, he should be on this song. I wasn't like, oh, these guys is bigger because there was on, it was like, I always go for the talent. Versus the talent. So for me, um, that story is always endless. So it's not really about. So to the point, I, I think that people is more worried about like, oh, let me sign this person. I just be like, yo, man, I remember Cash Money. Lil Wayne, Lil Wayne was like a kid. Uh, people be like, yo, Clef, how are you so connected and anyone you call?

• 37:51Speaker 01

  They just pick up the phone and anything you want. I'm like, yo, because I ain't screw nobody over. All I got is love and most of the people I put them on before they blew up anyway. So I remember like Cash Money.

• 38:06Speaker 01

  You know, and Brian Grazer, who's one of the biggest, um, producers out of Hollywood. Like this dude is like. You know what I mean? So Brian Grazer gave me my first shot at scoring. I scored the movie Life.

• 38:23Lewis Howes?

  Brian Grazer's the, the, the music composer, right?

• 38:26Speaker 01

  Yeah, Brian Grazer. See, music. He's like, no, he's the producer, like whether if it's, whether if it's, I mean, he probably got more Oscars than Life.

• 38:33Lewis Howes?

  Sure.

• 38:34Speaker 01

  Whether if it's, so the last thing he did was Empire.

• 38:36Lewis Howes?

  Okay.

• 38:37Speaker 01

  You know what I mean? But he's like, when I tell you a natural good friend.

• 38:41Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 38:42Speaker 01

  But he's like, I mean, in Hollywood, if it's top four, he gotta be number two or one. This is how powerful this dude is. Um, you gotta check, check the name out. But. Once again, I'm a kid who's doing a bunch of hip hop and R and B records. He was like, no, give this kid a shot. It's scoring. Cause I was like, yo, I'm really a jazz guy, you know? And I get to score. Life with Eddie Murphy and Martin Lawrence. So when, when you watch the movie now, you look at it again, you'll be like, holy crap. That's why Clef Jean's name, he did the score. So once again, I'm all over the place doing these things, but then I had to do the soundtrack. When I was doing the soundtrack, I was like, yo, there's a clique out of New Orleans. They call Cash Money.

• 39:25Speaker 01

  And I know, once again, nobody knows. Like it's just that I love music and I always got my ear to the pulse. So I was like, yo, this kid juvenile, boom, boom, boom, boom. And then I was like, then there's this kid named Ja Rule, who's coming out of the east coast, he's boom, boom, boom. So now if you go back and you listen to this life soundtrack that I did with R. Kelly, you'll see the amount of talent that I put on that soundtrack way before it blew. And I think that that's really the juju to what I do. I do not look for hype. Like, so we got two sides of it. We got the YouTube views, right? The Instagrams, the boom, boom. That's one side of the discovery.

• 40:09Speaker 01

  Then we have the opposite side of it, too. The opposite side is called magic. Right? And magic is something that comes out of nowhere. And you're just like, yo, what is this? Then you snap it and you put it back on YouTube. So, so for me, there's a lot of magic out there. There's people, a lot of people listen. There's a lot of magic out there. And, and, and a lot of it is getting lost in the sauce. Because we're not at the level now where majors are funding. Like when we was coming out in the nineties, we was getting funded big, millions of dollars was getting put in. But now you're in a different structure now.

• 40:54Speaker 01

  So what the record companies do is they just wait for the data analytics. So they go, okay, a hundred million views, go find this kid, sign him now. His name is Fetty Wap. Go sign him now. And that's dope. Like, so that's dope because, man, when I was coming out, I thought the A and Rs was so wack. Seventeen A and Rs passed on to Fugees. So I love the fact that we are in a generation where the kids can say, hold on to two middle fingers. You can't decide what's hot. I'm going to build my own audience and I'm going to show you what's hot. So I love that, like Chance the rapper, you know, I'm a big fan, like Chance, all of them. And then you have the other side of it, too.

• 41:36Speaker 01

  So I think the most exciting thing for me with this heads music that I'm partners with, with this new label is because when they came and got me, this was after politics. And they was like, yo, we need you to be the Haitian Smokey Robinson to this label. And the flu of talent coming up in the next five years is gonna be like mind boggling. There's a girl out of Colombia. After Shakira, remember I told you this name? So the next one out of Colombia, her name is Farina. Dude, remember I tell you this? You don't have to understand a word she's saying. Phonetically, her Spanish sounds like as if she's speaking English.

• 42:12Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 42:12Speaker 01

  She has every rhythm from Busta Rhymes to Drake to Lil Wayne. Ain't like she ever been up here. But she's so influenced by urban music. And um, so she's like somebody who, um, so that's some talent that I think, man, is, I find it mind, I find it mind boggling because not even speaking English. And you know, we'd be like, okay, music is the universal language. We get it, but when we actually hear someone speaking another language and we're like, yo, it don't matter what they saying. It's dope. You know, that's pretty exciting.

• 42:46Lewis Howes?

  Oh man, I'm a big salsa dancer. Love salsa. That's why when hips don't like him out, it's not really salsa, but you can dance salsa to it?

• 42:53Speaker 01

  Of course, of course.

• 42:54Lewis Howes?

  So it's like, it's the only song I can dance salsa to like a, a club or something because they're not playing salsa music usually?

• 43:00Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 43:01Lewis Howes?

  Uh, but when I'm in the salsa club and I've been doing it for almost, almost 12 years now. You know, there's no English and I'm like one of the only white guys in the club. It's all Latin's and it's like, I don't understand what they're saying, but I feel it and I understand what they're saying.

• 43:18Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 43:18Lewis Howes?

  You know what I mean?

• 43:19Speaker 01

  Cause music is a vibration.

• 43:20Lewis Howes?

  It is.

• 43:21Speaker 01

  Before a language.

• 43:22Lewis Howes?

  Mm-hmm.

• 43:23Speaker 01

  Period. You know what I'm saying to you? And I think it could be like, okay, we're living in America. Yes, English. But then when it come to Spanish dude, like Spanish is as popular as English.

• 43:36Lewis Howes?

  It's big.

• 43:37Speaker 01

  We can't talk about Hollywood without talking about Spanish. Come on. This is like part of the biggest form of culture. Like, you know what I'm saying? It's like, imagine America with no Latin people, man. This place would be like, man.

• 43:51Lewis Howes?

  Dead.

• 43:52Speaker 01

  Dead. Like, we'd be like, yo, what kind of food is this, man? What kind of dancing are you doing, buddy? So, um, all of that, once again, plays.

• 43:59Lewis Howes?

  That's true.

• 44:00Speaker 01

  Yeah, together.

• 44:01Lewis Howes?

  I'm curious, what, what do you think about on a day to day basis? What, what is the thing that like drives you crazy in a positive way or that drives you, drives you in general? When you're waking up in the morning, when you're going to bed, where's your thoughts go?

• 44:17Speaker 01

  Well, I mean, really now my thoughts are different than they were then, you know what I'm saying? More, you know, I I wake up every day now and my thoughts are like, okay. How are we gonna keep building on this legacy? You know, who's the next? So I wake up every day like thinking, you know, who's the next? It could be like a piece of software, an invention, like, okay. Where are we going with sounds? You know what I'm saying? Like, we had the MP3 generation. So now I'm like, okay, what is the next generation? So now my thoughts are back to my engineering craft. As um, cause when I did the score, it was in my basement.

• 45:03Speaker 01

  And people thought I did it in some big studio. Just to show you how advanced I was. Now the kids have a laptop and they're doing the music out of their room. The Fujis was doing that in the nineties. Do you see how crazy this is? So what you see a kids doing now with their laptop? I was doing it in the basement. Now, this was not the thing to do. Because they had the big SSL boards, the knees and all of that. What are you doing, putting up some foam on the walls? It just kind of soundproofed it the best way you can? We took the basement, we gutted it out. We put the foam on the walls. Yep. And once again, I just understood. Don't ask me how I understood this, but I understood science.

• 45:46Speaker 01

  And understood chemistry, right? I understand how how electricity works. So it's so funny, because you're in the basement. Could you imagine you plug in all that equipment? The first thing you're gonna get is you're gonna get a ground noise. Yeah. The whole thing.

• 46:04Speaker 01

  Ready or not, here I come.

• 46:08Speaker 01

  Like, yo, how the hell I'm gonna get rid of this ground noise? Dude, I took seven antennas.

• 46:15Speaker 01

  And I literally put them, yeah, I pinnacle them right in the, in the ceiling, right? Because it's all electricity. So then I was sending the ground to, to the, to the, to the wires, to the, to the piece of steel. And this is how I was cutting out the ground.

• 46:31Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 46:31Speaker 01

  So all I need to say that is, uh, so right now.

• 46:34Lewis Howes?

  How'd you understand that? Did you learn it somewhere? Were you just kind of tinkering or you just?

• 46:38Speaker 01

  No, I just knew that, I just knew that the ground noise is part of the electrical frequency. So the same way, like, as humans, if you're walking in the street, right? And lightning's down, you don't want to have no metal on you, right? So that means metal will react with electricity. So I was like, I knew the ground was coming from a certain way. So even though I don't see it, I can hear it, right? And it's living infinitely. But then it's almost like if you fishing, right? And you put a worm and then the fish is gonna come straight for the bait, the same way.

• 47:18Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 47:19Speaker 01

  So, you know what I'm saying? So, so I, so as the future is moving, one of the things that I know that I'll be part of inventing, and we've been working on it, it's probably gonna take two more years, you know, we, we, and I've been working with a team out of Singapore all over, just the next level to the MP3 generation, where you can convert files, send things over, and you're not losing the waves, the sounds, you know what I mean?

• 47:43Lewis Howes?

  Quality.

• 47:44Speaker 01

  The quality of everything. And everything you're hearing now is stereo, right?

• 47:48Lewis Howes?

  Uh huh.

• 47:49Speaker 01

  But the record Pink Floyd, The Wall, was all done. All of that weird trippy stuff was done, and what you call binaural.

• 48:00Lewis Howes?

  Mm hmm.

• 48:00Speaker 01

  So as the future moves forward, I feel like everything's gonna be. Different on how you hear it. So this is one of the things we wake up every day. Um, I drive a lot of scientists crazy on finding a new coding and moving like the MP3 generation forward. So I think we got, I mean, we're in the process. I can't reveal too much, but we're in the process of cracking. Um, different codes.

• 48:23Lewis Howes?

  That's great, man. What is um, a daily process for you like the non-negotiables, the things you need to do every single day to keep you. Mentally sharp, emotionally sharp, connected to the right people in the world, keep your musical gifts sharp and. Keep you thinking out a bigger wavelength. What are those non-negotiables?

• 48:44Speaker 01

  It's, it's one thing, man. It's my daughter. It's really it. Like she's it. You know what I mean? Like. I'm in the studio yesterday. She's like, she got the, the flu, you know what I mean? And she's FaceTiming. She's like, dad, I like, I'm coming, I'm coming because I got to edit because I got a show. I'm like, I'm coming. She's like, dad, you, we missing new addition. You know what I mean? Like I wasn't around when she's like 11. And um, and uh, she's 11, but she's a different 11 year old. Um, so.

• 49:18Lewis Howes?

  I heard she like steals your money and gives it to charities.

• 49:20Speaker 01

  Yeah, she takes money, gives it to charity. She's a different kind of 11 and um.

• 49:26Lewis Howes?

  Is this biological daughter?

• 49:28Speaker 01

  Yeah, my adopted daughter.

• 49:29Lewis Howes?

  Adopted daughter.

• 49:30Speaker 01

  Yeah, I've adopted her. Her name's Angelina. Since birth, like I took her from birth.

• 49:35Lewis Howes?

  So she's not your, your daughter, biological daughter, but your daughter.

• 49:38Speaker 01

  Yes, she's my daughter. You know what I mean? I feel like she was given to me by the gods. So literally from the hospital to me, you know what I mean? Um, so she's, I call her Angelina because that's what she is to me. She's just a gift. She's a gift and um, a very rare gift. Um, sometime.

• 50:01Speaker 01

  Kids are given to us in different ways. We don't know why and we should never question science, right? So we should just feel it and go with it, right? Cause sometimes you could be like, yo, um, why is this child sent to me, right? So for example, like, um, I still consider her a great friend, Angelina Jolie, you know? And we've been to Haiti together. We've worked together. We, but those kids, it's like,

• 50:35Speaker 01

  because of where they come from, right? When someone, you never know, it could be,

• 50:42Speaker 01

  you could have took a kid and this kid could have probably end up in Skid Row. And you don't even know that, but somehow the science understands it. Karma understands it. One thing that's real is karma. So like, I never really questioned karma. So I'm like, okay, I don't know, like, maybe this is what I'm supposed to be doing because, um, I'm supposed to be saving someone, but I, I'm not thinking of it like that. And I really don't question it. And I think, in my opinion, when we challenge the universe is when we get because the universe is tricky. It, it gives you, the signs are very, very clear.

• 51:27Speaker 01

  But, um, so sometimes we'd be like, no, no, I don't want this like this. I want this like this. I want, so me, it's sort of like, because of where I come from. And I'd be like, you know what?

• 51:38Speaker 01

  I won't question anything. I'll love everything. You know what I'm saying? And I'll protect everything I, I love and I'll fight and die for what I love. You know what I'm saying?

• 51:49Lewis Howes?

  Sure.

• 51:50Speaker 01

  And that's really my philosophy.

• 51:52Lewis Howes?

  I love it. That's a good philosophy to have. And so what about other habits that you have? Obviously your daughter is the main thing.

• 52:00Speaker 01

  Yeah, my daughter, my daughter's incredible.

• 52:03Lewis Howes?

  Are there other things, rituals or routines?

• 52:05Speaker 01

  Yeah, I love. Uh, like if you look online, like you'll see me doing um CrossFit. I love CrossFit, man. Yeah. Doing it for years. Yeah, CrossFit is um. We had the founder on here a while ago. Okay. Yeah, yeah, great class man. Yeah, it's incredible. Um, I always was like, look, if, if, if things didn't work out, I knew that I would go straight to the military and I would have been a SEAL. Like, I know that for a fact. So funny. So I'm so into like the militancy of um, like how far you could push your body. That's why I was saying, man, you'd be surprised how far your body can go when you're situated. So I love that. I love practicing. Um, so uh, every day. Music.

• 52:49Speaker 01

  Yeah, every day I sit on like four or five instruments and I literally just like it's therapeutic. So versus going to a psychiatrist, right? Everyone has, everyone has a release. People listening to this, they release is yoga. You got some, it's swimming, it's, but there's something about the mind stimulation. So I could sit there and say, okay, today I'm gonna work on chord progressions. So I just sit on the piano and I just, it could be like an hour, but after a while, it's, it drifts your head somewhere else and it's almost like a form of meditation without you feeling like, without you having to say the word of meditating. Um, I call it like time drifter or time travel.

• 53:33Speaker 01

  So um, I think a lot of that stuff is healthier and a lot of people has to, have to find that stuff. Cause sometime we be complaining like, yo, life is so messed up. This is so. And then when we look at it and we just take a second and think and be like, holy crap. Everything is really here for us. We just gotta take, take, take it, you know? Cause sometime you be like, yo, life is messed up. But then when you look at your surroundings, you'll be like, yo, maybe it's messed up because this person, you know, and I'm a strong believer of keeping the right energy around you because not all the time in my life have I had the right energy around me. So I know when it's bad energy, you know what I'm saying? So I'm like, I'd be like, yo, man,

• 54:18Speaker 01

  make sure you, you get the right, and, and kids be like, yo, tell us what determines if we can be a star or if we can make it in the business or not. Or if we can last, cuz I said, our DNAs don't exist no more. I said, we from the nineties, Jay-Z's from the nineties, Klash from the nineties. I'm like Beyonce nineties, I'm like, we all, and this is like twenty four years later, dude. Like twenty four years later. So then I look and say, okay, well, tell me an artist that's right now. That's gonna twenty four years later from now, there's gonna be interviewing and be like, yo. And I'm saying you stay relevant to generations. I'm not saying like you've fallen off.

• 55:04Speaker 01

  You literally keep reinventing yourself to generation through the gas of the music. So once again, I tell kids karma and how you surround yourself and how you treat people. And look, you're gonna be up, like one time you're gonna be like, everyone has a peak. And I learned this from Stevie Wonder, we all have a peak, right? And Stevie was like, look, man, you gonna have a peak. And then if you, if you do it right, you probably gonna have two to three peaks. He said in life, and he was like, they're gonna be different peaks. He said, you might think your second peak is a music peak and it's not a music peak. So I felt like my first peak was the Fugees.

• 55:48Lewis Howes?

  It's a big peak.

• 55:49Speaker 01

  It was a big peak and I felt my second peak was when I decided that I was gonna become the president of my country of Haiti. So I didn't, I wasn't like thinking like, and when I say peak, these are like historical moments that you're gonna do all of this great stuff in the middle, right? We call that sustaining it, right?

• 56:08Lewis Howes?

  Sure, yeah.

• 56:09Speaker 01

  The peak is like something happens and it blitzed the universe.

• 56:13Lewis Howes?

  Everyone's attached on you.

• 56:14Speaker 01

  Yeah, it just, it blitzed the universe, you know what I'm saying to you? So, um, so now, you know, I await the third peak. I don't know what it's gonna be, man, maybe I'll become like a, a CrossFit mix. I don't know what it's gonna be, but, um, so all of these things are really, once again, based on karma and based on yourself.

• 56:32Lewis Howes?

  So how do you, when you, you know, you've reached a peak? How do you maintain it? And what does it do for your mindset? If you're not getting the same attention that you were once getting at a peak? Does that affect you? Does it hurt you? Does it frustrate you if you're not as relevant as previously at certain times?

• 56:49Speaker 01

  Yeah, and this is a great, great question, right? Because everyone always wants to be on top, right? And everyone don't want to be second and nobody wants to be third, right? So this is how everyone should break it down. So you're gonna have a peak. LeBron is LeBron.

• 57:07Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 57:07Speaker 01

  Kobe was Kobe, them dudes. So no one could take away from the legacy mark, right? Past that, the sustainability is can you do more than the music? Can you do more than the sports? Do you stand for something? Your, your, your, your sustainability is just based on what you stand for. So if you at your peak, you think you're the best thing in the world. You think like, I'm never gonna be under. The minute you see you number three, you commit suicide.

• 57:46Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 57:47Speaker 01

  Because your brain can't. But if you say, okay, at your peak, if you're doing good, right? And you're like, man, you're helping this person. You do, people say, man, this guy is such a nice guy. What happens is when you become number six, you know? And somebody who's number one, they're gonna come find you and be like, yo, man. Remember me like you did, boom, boom, boom, boom. And they, so.

• 58:15Lewis Howes?

  They bring you back up.

• 58:16Speaker 01

  They always bring you back up. So it's sort of like, no matter what happens, when a kid is talking and he's like, yo, if it wasn't for Kobe, I would. What? Kobe, that lifts Kobe right back up. So then you become, so now there's the peak. Now past the peak, it's called iconic. So now, when you at a level of legendary and iconic, then you at a level of zen. You're always a peak. You're at a level of zen, you show up, all the kids goes like, that's legendary, you know what I'm saying? So, but in order to get to that level, you have to be standing for something. So what happens is, if you're not at that level of iconic, or the kids are saying, man, he's an icon. You know, that's the OG, that's the triple OG.

• 59:02Speaker 01

  Then what happens is, every day you wake up, you worry about your relevancy. And then you start to adapt with however the ocean is moving. So that you can stay relevant. And when that happens, I mean, basically, cause if you are doing music.

• 59:24Speaker 01

  You do music. Now, the best athletes that will last forever, Muhammad Ali. Like, why? Like, why Ali? Like, this guy went to jail, like, why? Like, what is it? Like, why? People still, because, once again, past the sports, he just did what was right. Not what was popular all the time, because what's right ain't gonna be what's popular. And I did stuff like where, man, like, yo, man, the Lord knows, like, you know, like, people come and they challenge you, they test your credibility, they say, and it has nothing to do with music. They're like, yo, you should have stayed in the music lane. But history protects the truth, and it will always protect you.

• 1:00:09Speaker 01

  So, for me, that's, that's the advice I could give anybody, you know what I'm saying? I love that. And what's the thing that you stand for outside of music?

• 1:00:18Speaker 01

  I mean, outside of music, right? Because I feel like music is just a gift, a natural gift. I stand for people. And what does that mean? Man, you stand for people. That means that I believe that we all are human beings. And our job is to love each other, protect each other, help each other grow. Um, it's what we talked about earlier. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? I'd be like, yo, you ever read the book Silistine Prophecy? You ever read Egyptian Book of the Dead? You ever read The Vortex? You ever read The Alchemist? You'd be like, man, I did, Clef. What was the people thinking? Alchemist. See, see, I couldn't even make it up, right? It's up there somewhere, yeah.

• 1:00:59Speaker 01

  Yeah, but what was the people thinking when they was writing this book, right? The author, what was he thinking? It was like, yo, it's either I'm gonna stand for something and I'm gonna do something that's gonna live two thousand years from now. And in order to do that, you can't, you can't be selfish and stand for yourself. You gotta stand for people. John Lennon, he stood up for people. He's John Lennon. And Muhammad Ali stood up for people. Well, you know, when an athlete don't agree

• 1:01:32Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 1:01:32Speaker 01

  with something that's going on in the sports and he decide like, you know what? I ain't gonna raise up my hand or I'm not gonna, he's standing for something. Now, we can have our opinions. We could be like, yo, that's fucked up what he's doing. But only history will tell and know if he's doing the right thing or not.

• 1:01:50Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, yeah. What's the biggest challenge right now we're facing, not just in America, but as humans?

• 1:01:57Speaker 01

  Um, man, the, the, the ego factor, right? It comes from the Roman Empire. Like, everybody must rule, everybody must conquer. And everybody feels like everyone else is supposed to be under them, right? So, you know, like, I'm not no conspiracy theorist, you know what I mean? But my grandfather was a voodoo priest from Haiti. My father was a minister, my uncle was a mason. So I was raised with the triad, right? So my, my grandfather, my father defied my grandfather.

• 1:02:39Lewis Howes?

  Hmm.

• 1:02:40Speaker 01

  Cause my father was like, he ain't into whatever my grandfather was doing. But my grandfather was like, this is who you are, dude. Like, you're, you know what I mean? So now, I come in the picture and my father trying to make me a minister and I'm like, you're out your mind, dude. This is not what I'm gonna be doing. But it's sort of like, it all goes back to the essence, you know what I mean? And I could just say like, one thing I learnt from my grandfather, because, I mean, I mean, he's the natural David Blaine. So, like, one thing I learned from my grandfather was just that, you know, science is real, karma is real. And the greatest miracle.

• 1:03:28Speaker 01

  To ever come out of anywhere, like even if you see a man levitate none of that. He said, the two greatest miracles is birth and death.

• 1:03:42Speaker 01

  He said, once you understand that, then you understand that every man and every woman is created equal. Then I'll even take it a step further. I'm like, yo, man, this is confusing. What you mean everybody created equal? It's okay. Well, just even take it a step further. The ruler of the Roman Empire, you could put whoever he is, like you'd be like, yo, this dude was dominating. There was one crazy ruler by the name of Caligula, like in high school, I saw that movie insane. High out my mind watching Caligula, he walked out with some girl, like, yeah, this is gross, this is crazy. But, um, or it could be Brutus, like at the end of the day, take them at their death.

• 1:04:28Speaker 01

  And take who they consider a peasant at their death. They both meet the same place.

• 1:04:34Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 1:04:35Speaker 01

  To the dirt. So he's like, yo, so I feel like this is the biggest problem that we face is just that mentality of the old school Roman Empire where everybody wants to be the biggest force. And while they want to do this, man, babies are getting shot from the sky. Women are getting kidnapped and raped, child trafficking is going on and all of that. So I guess I'm one of those that is optimistic to say, you know, the world can be a better place. But it would take us as human beings to make it a better place.

• 1:05:14Lewis Howes?

  I'm so glad you're talking about this because I'm, I'm finishing up a book right now that comes out later this year called The Mask of Masculinity. And it's about the ego that drives men in general. To um that hold us back from our true greatness and our vulnerability and the love inside of our hearts to connect with people in an intimate vulnerable way. In our authentic way.

• 1:05:36Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:05:36Lewis Howes?

  And I think um you know that's so uh we get so sus- susceptible of and enticed by you know having more. And control and manipulation and money and you know sex and all these other things that it holds us back and we put up these walls. That aren't really truly us. And I think you're right on. I mean, I think the ego is the biggest challenge that the world faces.

• 1:06:01Speaker 01

  No, big time. The ego and this is not a now thing. This is a always has been thing. And at the end of the day, it's good that we could talk about it. It's good. Like what you're writing. I'm gonna definitely read it because what happens is maybe. Cause I don't believe that it will stay like this. You know what I mean? Because long before. You know, we had the Google map. We had the pyramids and someone figured out the Aztecs. They figured all of this stuff out. So I just feel like it's a rotation. Where things go back to the cycle of the same.

• 1:06:36Lewis Howes?

  It's like a peak.

• 1:06:37Speaker 01

  Yeah. And you don't know like, you know, like. Humans will accept whatever the new norm is. And this is the part that I want people to understand. So what you think the new norm will be. You might be getting another surprise. So basically. The the the most thing to do is basically to stay humble and stay at an even playing field. Cause you really. We we know where we're going. We know we're gonna have flying cars. We know where we're going. Um. I'll give you a a cool thing. Everyone was listening. Check out the the Apple's Juno Jupiter project.

• 1:07:15Speaker 01

  It's very cool. It's sort of like so Juno spaceship sent to space and to record sounds. Around Jupiter.

• 1:07:26Speaker 01

  And then so Juno is sending back the signals from Jupiter, right? So, uh, and it's online. Y'all should definitely check it out. Cause you could see like what's going on with the weather in Jupiter. Now to find out if there's water in Jupiter, right? And also, you could see it online. There are sounds coming from Jupiter. And these are like, different things. So a- at the end of the day, all I say is, you know, I ain't no crazy person. So don't be like, yo, man, yo, that dude Clef came on the show. Yo, that dude was smoked out. He had like six edibles. He started talking about aliens. No, what I'm saying is, we humans will accept whatever the new norm is.

• 1:08:06Speaker 01

  And we are on earth. So, on earth, we have to find a way to figure out what the harmony is. Because if we don't figure out what the harmony is on earth, nature will figure it out for us. And that's all I'm saying.

• 1:08:21Lewis Howes?

  Mm-hmm. I love that.

• 1:08:22Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:08:24Lewis Howes?

  Man, I feel like I could listen to you all day, man. What is, uh, what's your definition of music?

• 1:08:30Speaker 01

  Oh, that's a good one. Man, my, my definition of music is life, you know? Like imagine the world, man, with no music. It's like the world with no heartbeat. Yeah, man. It's life, definitely.

• 1:08:44Lewis Howes?

  Where do you think the best songs come from?

• 1:08:50Speaker 01

  The best songs basically are inspired from the same place that birth comes from. And from the same place that death comes from. Because if you pay close attention to artists that are in tune with themselves and they write personal, and these are the songs that end up big.

• 1:09:10Speaker 01

  The artist can get inspired and predict their death in the song.

• 1:09:18Speaker 01

  I mean, I could give you different examples. And the artist can predict life in the songs. And they can predict what's gonna happen, when it's gonna happen, before it happens. Because it's the mystery of birth and it's the mystery of death. Like, what, what is this thing? Like, it's, is death really life? Is life really death? You see what I'm saying to you?

• 1:09:40Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 1:09:40Speaker 01

  So at the end of the day, you know, that's where we get inspired. And once again, for those that think I'm tripping.

• 1:09:51Speaker 01

  It could be Biggie.

• 1:09:52Lewis Howes?

  Hmm.

• 1:09:54Speaker 01

  It could be Tupac.

• 1:09:55Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 1:09:56Speaker 01

  It could be Otis, sitting on the dock of the bay.

• 1:09:59Lewis Howes?

  Oh, man.

• 1:10:00Speaker 01

  I could keep going on and on.

• 1:10:02Lewis Howes?

  He was amazing.

• 1:10:02Speaker 01

  Yeah, it could be the Fugees. We used to be number 10, now we permanent 1. We wasn't even number 10. But in my brain, I was like, yo, we about to be number 1. I could clearly see, who's telling you this, Clef? I don't know, I just feel like we going to be number, how you gonna be number 1? The last album sold 2 copies. No, something, it's an energy, it's that feeling, you know what I mean?

• 1:10:26Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, wow.

• 1:10:29Lewis Howes?

  I'm curious about your legacy. Again, you've had so many hits, you've won, you know, Grammys, all the big hits, the songs, the accomplishments. What is the legacy you really wanna be left behind for you? What's the thing you wanna be remembered for the most?

• 1:10:45Speaker 01

  I really don't know yet, because when I look at what I'm doing, I feel like I'm just getting started, right? So.

• 1:10:52Lewis Howes?

  You're a young man.

• 1:10:53Speaker 01

  Yeah, and then the age that I'm about to go in is the age that Quincy Jones did Michael Jackson.

• 1:10:58Lewis Howes?

  Ooh.

• 1:10:58Speaker 01

  So I really feel like, um, my best work is ahead of me, and I feel that,

• 1:11:06Speaker 01

  you know, I, I just think like what we did with the 90s with, and no way trying to recreate that. I just feel that there's a flu of new talent and that are moving at the speed of light. So, I just think, whatever that is, if I'm part of that and help build some kind of structure within that, um, I'll, I'll be able to define it. Um, I would, I would be able to, if you asked me that a year ago or a year and a half, I would be able to, maybe 2 years ago, I probably would tell you. Because when Head's Music came and got me, I was like, man, I'm done with music. Like, I left music, I went to politics to help my country. And the exact words was, you're not done with the culture. The culture needs you.

• 1:11:52Speaker 01

  And then so what happens is now, when you have a kid that's 25 named Young Doug, and his first song on his EP is called Why Clef Jean, it makes you say, man.

• 1:12:04Speaker 01

  They're right, like that space, there's something. So now there's a connection with the kids. So all this information that I have, I'm supposed to give it to them. I haven't given it to them yet. So that's what the legacies, I thought they had it. But um, so then it shows you, okay, the legacy, you can't even talk legacy yet until you pass this information.

• 1:12:26Lewis Howes?

  So this next decade might be the biggest one so far.

• 1:12:28Speaker 01

  Yeah, cuz we gonna pass a lot of information over to the youth.

• 1:12:31Lewis Howes?

  Have to pass the torch over, yeah, yeah.

• 1:12:32Speaker 01

  Yeah, a lot of information.

• 1:12:34Lewis Howes?

  I want to ask about your last day on earth, many years from now. This is a question I call, I ask called the three truths. You've, you know, all the awards you've already gotten, you're about to, you're gonna pass the torch for the decades to come and, and be building up the youth and having all these superstars and who knows what you're gonna be doing, reinventing how music is listened to, the wave, you know, files, everything. It's the last day and for whatever reason, all your music has been erased. It's gone. And all you have is a piece of paper and a pen to write down three truths. The three things you know to be true about your experience, your life, the lessons you would pass on, but they couldn't hear anymore of your music.

• 1:13:17Lewis Howes?

  For whatever reason, what would you write down as your three truths?

• 1:13:21Speaker 01

  I mean, the first truth that we would write down is to basically, to live for yourself and not to live for others is the most selfish act you will ever experience in your lifetime. That's the first truth that I would write. The second truth that I would write is no matter what happens when I'm gone, always remember that we all are equal. We're from the same balance, right and left makes us balance evenly. So it's important that no matter what happens, that man, woman, child, understand that there's no one above no one.

• 1:14:06Speaker 01

  Very important, you know what I mean? And then the third truth, which is probably the most mystique truth that I would leave is that even though I'm gone.

• 1:14:22Speaker 01

  All you have to do is pay attention to the wind. I'm still here. All you have to do is when you jump in that ocean and you see that wave, that's me coming. When you look in the sky, you see that bird thirty thousand feet and that eagle smiles. Know that that's me. So I'm forever here, baby.

• 1:14:47Lewis Howes?

  And what's the, um, what's the thing that you want people to know about the most right now? We gotta wrap things up here for a second. But what can we connect with you online? What's the big thing you wanna promote right now?

• 1:14:57Speaker 01

  Well, I, I think right now, um, it's a streaming generation. So it's, it's incredible to come back, right? And we're in a music space. So to see like a song like Hendrix streaming like ten million on its way to twenty million is incredible. So the EP we have is called Juve. And Juve, uh, gives you, uh, a DNA of where Wyclef's from, right? So basically, I'm a Caribbean West Indian boy. So it takes you, I always say, if you haven't been to the Caribbean, pick up Juve, it'll give you that DNA. But that whole EP will lead into a full-length album.

• 1:15:37Lewis Howes?

  Okay.

• 1:15:37Speaker 01

  Which is called The Carnival. And The Carnival is, uh, anybody who got Carnival one, you already know it's gonna be like dorm room music. And, um, it's gonna have very, I'm going for, whenever I say the theme is The Carnival, it's very eclectic, the sound. So we're gonna have, uh, some wild, some wild shit on there, you know? So for example, you know, we might bring Darryl Hall. Take Rich Girl. I flipped the scheme and do twenty seventeen version of Rich Girl. Throw it off by putting Pusha T in the middle, you know what I'm saying? So it's gonna be like wild stuff like that. Like, you don't know what's gonna happen. But, um, what I loved about Juve, everyone says, man. It's a body of work.

• 1:16:21Lewis Howes?

  Hmm.

• 1:16:21Speaker 01

  Cause people like, I'm like, yeah, people still listen to a body of work. If it's dope, they'll pull songs, but people, there's, okay, maybe the kids will pull the songs, but people my age, they want the body of work. So we're gonna keep putting body of work.

• 1:16:35Lewis Howes?

  I love it. We were listening to the whole thing before. It's amazing.

• 1:16:37Speaker 01

  Love, thank you.

• 1:16:38Lewis Howes?

  We'll link it up here afterwards.

• 1:16:39Speaker 01

  Alright.

• 1:16:39Lewis Howes?

  Um, I want to acknowledge you, Wyclef, for your incredible gifts, for your heart and for your ability to lift up humanity.

• 1:16:47Speaker 01

  Thank you.

• 1:16:48Lewis Howes?

  You've done an amazing job and it's, you're more than just music, man. You're really about helping the world.

• 1:16:52Speaker 01

  Love you too, man. We keep pushing.

• 1:16:53Lewis Howes?

  Thank you, man. Appreciate you.

• 1:16:55Speaker 01

  Bless.

• 1:16:55Lewis Howes?

  Thank you.

• 1:16:56Speaker 01

  Alright.

• 1:17:00Lewis Howes?

  Oh, what a beautiful human being and soul. So glad we got to connect. And I'm so glad that you stuck around to listen to this entire interview because I loved every moment of it. Loved his stories, loved his message. And if you love Wyclef as much as I enjoyed this, then make sure to share this out with your friends and spread the love. LewisHowes.com/457. Connect with Wyclef on social media. He's over on Twitter and Instagram. He's pretty active in all those places. So tweet him, at Wyclef John. Make sure to add him on Instagram and tag me and Wyclef over on your Instagram story that you're listening to this right now, so we can connect and say hi. So tag both of us over on the stories on Instagram and say hi.

• 1:17:41Lewis Howes?

  Again, if you haven't left a review, please leave one over on iTunes.com/greatness. Or if you're on the podcast app right now, just click on the review button on your podcast app and leave one for us right now. We've got some amazing guests coming up. I am so pumped for this. You have no idea. We've got some big interviews, episodes that we're releasing and some people who are coming on uh, each and every week. We do this every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. And it's all about bringing you positive inspiration and the right tools, training, ideas and people to help you unlock your inner greatness. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you so much for being here. I love you very much. And you know what time it is. It's time to go out there and do something great.