WYCLEF JEAN Talks Haiti, New Music, Legacy

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

• 0:04Speaker 00

  This is the original, no carbon copy, ladies and gentlemen. Before the AI, it was I.

• 0:14Speaker 00

  I.A.

• 0:16Speaker 00

  Intelligent Alpha. Maria Maria, yeah. She remind me of a west side story. Growing up in Spanish Harlem, yeah. She living life just like a movie star, yeah. Maria Maria, yeah.

• 0:44Speaker 00

  She fell in love in East Atlanta, yeah.

• 0:49Speaker 00

  To the sound of the guitar, yeah. Let's go, y'all, play by Carlos.

• 1:06Speaker 00

  Ready or not, here I come. You can't hide, shout out to the Fujis. I'm gonna... Y'all know what this is. Sing along, everybody, like, ready or not, here I come. You can't hide, yeah. I'm gonna force you. Yo, yo, yo. Now that I escaped, sleepwalk awake. Those who cover late know the world ain't cake. Jail bars ain't golden gates. Those who fake, they break. When they meet their 400-pound mate. If I could rule the world, everyone would have a gun. In the ghetto, of course, when Giddy up and on they horse, yo. I kick around drinking moonshine. I pour a sip on the concrete. But the deceased will know, don't weep.

• 1:48Speaker 00

  While Clef's in a state of sleep, thinking bout the robbery that I did last week. Money on the backbank could look like a drag. What you smoking on, what you smoking on, man? Ooh la la la. It's the way that we rock when we doing our thing. Ooh la la la. It's the natural vibe that the refugees bring. Ooh la la la la la la la la la la la. It's me.

• 2:15Speaker 01

  I go by the name of Y. Kleb Shunk. I got seven albums coming out, one a month. Starting in April until, you feel me? Country, hip-hop, reggae. Let's end on some like, you know what I'm saying? On some like, real like, world type vibe. Y'all feel me like?

• 2:42Speaker 00

  Old pirates, yes they rob our house. So lie to the merchant's chest. Many chapter they took out From the bad and vicious page. My head was bashed down. By the end of the Almighty. We struggle in this generation. Triumphantly. Africa. Middle East.

• 3:24Speaker 00

  Europe. The Americas. America. Won't you help me, Shane? Another stronger freedom. Is all I ever had. Redemption song. Chee-gee. Redemption song. Emancipations set from mental slavery. None but ourselves can free our minds. Have no fear for atomic energy.

• 4:06Speaker 00

  For none of them can stop the tide. How long will it kill our profits? While we stand the sign of love?

• 4:19Speaker 01

  Some say it's just a part of it. We've got to fulfill the boat. Asia, Middle East, Africa, the Americas, the entire world. Lord, won't you help me sing you another song of freedom? Cause all I ever had, redeemed song song.

• 4:52Speaker 01

  Wow, clap, baby.

• 5:26Speaker 01

  Oh, you caught the bars, bro. If you miss your bars.

• 5:29Adam Friedland?

  You miss those bars, he's not gonna run it again.

• 5:31Speaker 01

  No, there's new bars. Every day, there's a new bar.

• 5:33Adam Friedland?

  That was like, uh, that was like, uh, you know, like a Big L, like, did the whole alphabet. You did num- the numerical.

• 5:40Speaker 01

  Yeah, I'm from, I'm from, you know, battle rap was part of my, like, natural come up. You know what I mean? Um, being in the projects. That was sort of like, I, I always said, uh, being like the oldest. So, sort of like, you mess with my sister or brother, they're like, I'm gonna get my big brother, you know? And I would show up and I, I only, I only weighed like a buck, like 10, you feel what I'm saying to you? So.

• 6:08Adam Friedland?

  How old were you, like, when you started?

• 6:11Speaker 01

  Like um when I started rapping.

• 6:13Adam Friedland?

  Well battling.

• 6:15Speaker 01

  Battle rapping, I was twelve. Yeah, cuz I came from Haiti when I was like seven, eight. And then I landed in Marlboro Projects. So Marlboro Projects, you know, getting into a lot of fight. Coney Island, um, battle rap was just. Like it was just an avenue. Where you didn't have to like slapbox as much or. Get into a lot of altercation, so you would use. It was like breakdancing or if you was on graffiti, this would be like your way of like. You know, like, let, let, let, let's, let, let's, let's do the fade. But we gonna do the fade lyrically, you feel me?

• 6:47Adam Friedland?

  As like a, an immigrant and like a refugee, of course. Didn't it feel like you were integrating culturally? And then you were like, kind of like. Getting, getting the mean kids off your back a little bit.

• 6:58Speaker 01

  Well, the thing is, remember on the album, the score, if you go back and you listen. There's a line, I always say Haitian Sicilian. In the score. Like you'd be like, whoa, I don't get it. Haiti, Sic- Italy, like where's the connection? I grew up in Marlboro Projects. You feel what I'm saying to you? So that, that. Growing up in an area. And just understanding that we all was immigrants, you feel what I'm saying to you? So whether if you was Italian, you Haitian, you Irish, you. It's like at the end of the day. This is like the city of immigrants, right? So coming from the city of immigrants. You gotta find certain passions that you just used to. So I have family members, they was more into like the gang culture. I had some that they were into sports, you feel me? And like every, like literally, we all trying to find an avenue, you feel me?

• 7:43Speaker 01

  And um, so my avenue. Was music.

• 7:48Adam Friedland?

  Like um, what was like the most shocking? Because obviously you're from, you're from Haiti, we should back up.

• 7:54Speaker 01

  The Americas. I always said like Haiti, the Americas, cuz sometime in America. You know what I'm saying, like, I think like sometime we as Americans. Like, you know what I'm saying, sometime. Because of, of the course of history, like, I don't think like we understand like Haiti's within the Americas.

• 8:08Adam Friedland?

  Well, I mean, it's a country that I think isn't thought about enough, maybe. Cuz it is like. Like especially currently, like it is like the, the biggest, like a political crisis probably in it, in its modern history. Am I correct in saying that?

• 8:22Speaker 01

  A hundred percent, but you know why it's not thought about enough? The reason why it's not thought about enough is this, right there, so. Haiti is the first black republic in the world.

• 8:33Adam Friedland?

  Correct.

• 8:33Speaker 01

  Eighteen oh four.

• 8:34Adam Friedland?

  Tucson.

• 8:35Speaker 01

  Tucson, Lauter, right? So think about it. So that means like in America, when you're running the slave trade.

• 8:41Adam Friedland?

  Yeah.

• 8:41Speaker 01

  You literally have an island where a bunch of people are completely running the island and they're free. They're moving around. So they never wanted that connection to happen. So whether if you're looking at Thomas Jefferson or different people, even like looking with Frederick Douglass, like said about Haiti. So at the end of the day, Haiti being that it got its independence, it had to pay over a billion dollars to France, right? So literally.

• 9:06Adam Friedland?

  They had to pay to literally not be made slaves again.

• 9:09Speaker 01

  Yeah, like literally like Napoleon is like, yo, y'all want me to come back?

• 9:12Adam Friedland?

  I would blow you up.

• 9:14Speaker 01

  It's gonna cost y'all. So in saying that, and can you imagine like Haiti was one of the number ones for trade? It was known for like sugar and like sugar and cocoa.

• 9:23Adam Friedland?

  Yeah.

• 9:24Speaker 01

  So at the end of the day, is, I know like we, think of like what happens in Haiti and the idea of like reparation. We, we're screaming like, yo, what does reparation look like? But I want you to like even think a step further. What would have happened if those Haitians had connected with the black Americans, for example, in America? I'm just giving you an example.

• 9:46Adam Friedland?

  Yeah.

• 9:46Speaker 01

  What if the black Americans in America understood that Haiti was part of the Louisiana Purchase?

• 9:52Adam Friedland?

  Uh huh.

• 9:53Speaker 01

  And, and strategic in helping that. What, you know, I think like all Americans like watching is like, oh, that's really cool. Like, you know what I'm saying? The biggest real estate deal happened through Haiti. Now, Chicago. Jean-Baptiste Poinjour Sabre, the founder of Chicago is Haitian.

• 10:09Adam Friedland?

  I mean, you guys bought the Eiffel Tower for France.

• 10:11Speaker 01

  Yeah. So, so the key, yeah. So at the end of the day, what I'm saying is like, we, we're part of it, right?

• 10:17Adam Friedland?

  The one difference that pops up in my mind is that, that, that was the first, oh, I forgot. Okay.

• 10:23Speaker 01

  Wow.

• 10:24Adam Friedland?

  I'll keep grabbing. I want to pay tribute. Uh, anytime we have like a goat or a legend, we get them, we get them a little nineteen forty two.

• 10:33Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 10:34Adam Friedland?

  Also, this is an Adam Freed legend I had. It's kind of, it's dirty.

• 10:37Speaker 01

  Hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on. I feel it, I feel it. Let me switch up though, you feel me?

• 10:43Adam Friedland?

  Oh, really? It is but an honor. It is, give it up for that.

• 10:46Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah.

• 10:47Adam Friedland?

  Give it up for that.

• 10:49Adam Friedland?

  Merchandise.

• 10:50Speaker 01

  We gotta switch up, man.

• 10:52Adam Friedland?

  Yeah, we'll do a little, we'll do a little.

• 10:54Speaker 01

  And you don't give a rapper a drink and he don't.

• 10:56Adam Friedland?

  I gave, I gave Jadakiss, uh, the, the same honor, uh, but he didn't get a hat.

• 11:02Speaker 01

  Yeah, I love Jadakiss.

• 11:03Adam Friedland?

  He's the one, kind of. He's kind of the one.

• 11:05Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, Jadakiss, man.

• 11:08Adam Friedland?

  It's a corny question, but like, who would you conceive of as your top, uh, top five?

• 11:15Speaker 01

  Well, I think that top five for me, i- it depends, right? Because at the end of the day, people be like, yo, Clef, you, I, I wanted to be like top five composer of the world.

• 11:26Adam Friedland?

  Yeah.

• 11:26Speaker 01

  Like Quincy Jones, Gershwin, or whatever. When it comes to rhyming, um, as a, as a composer, I love like raw rap, you know what I'm saying to you? So I could just tell you like one of my favorite rappers of all time, his name is Coogee Rap. So people should definitely look at that. That's like one of my top five of all time. Another one that's my top five of all time, I was in video when I was 18 years old.

• 11:49Adam Friedland?

  I know.

• 11:49Speaker 01

  Rakim.

• 11:50Adam Friedland?

  Rakim.

• 11:50Speaker 01

  Yeah, that's one of my, you get what I'm saying?

• 11:52Adam Friedland?

  You played bass.

• 11:53Speaker 01

  Yeah. Now another one, Big L. Why Big L? Cause there was a show called Stretchin' Barbito, like so.

• 12:01Adam Friedland?

  That was the, that was like a, at Columbia, right? It was like a college radio station.

• 12:05Speaker 01

  So it was like we always coming up. And Nas, right? Nas is one of my, cause this is like, I'm telling you this because, so the lens that I see it from is a different lens than y'all see it from. The lens that I see it from, I'm like 18, 19, and I'm going to a show called like Stretchin' Barbito.

• 12:23Adam Friedland?

  Yeah.

• 12:24Speaker 01

  You know what I'm saying? Like where college radio was the underground and that's what was killing it. So then when you hear like somebody like Big L, so you have many that came up. Another one of my favorites of all time, I can't really say five, like, you know, I love Eminem.

• 12:37Adam Friedland?

  Question.

• 12:38Speaker 01

  And, uh, I think.

• 12:39Adam Friedland?

  He's very good at rap.

• 12:40Speaker 01

  Biggie Smalls.

• 12:41Adam Friedland?

  Yeah, he's very good at rap.

• 12:42Speaker 01

  You know, and Tupac is my, my, uh. My go to when it comes to the conscious.

• 12:47Adam Friedland?

  What about Tunchi?

• 12:48Speaker 01

  Hmm?

• 12:49Adam Friedland?

  What about Wayne?

• 12:50Speaker 01

  Wayne to me is.

• 12:52Adam Friedland?

  Bad?

• 12:53Speaker 01

  No, no, no Wayne, no, no. Wayne to me is genius.

• 12:58Adam Friedland?

  He's a genius.

• 12:59Speaker 01

  Like, what I mean by that is.

• 13:01Adam Friedland?

  Well, can I have some?

• 13:01Speaker 01

  What I mean by that, you tapping in? So I got you, I got you on Haitian, I got you.

• 13:06Adam Friedland?

  We have to do a little.

• 13:07Speaker 01

  Yeah, so when you, when, when it, you see, when you say people like Wayne, to me, you gotta understand.

• 13:12Adam Friedland?

  Yeah.

• 13:12Speaker 01

  Nah, that's a little bit.

• 13:13Adam Friedland?

  That's a lot.

• 13:14Speaker 01

  We, we, again.

• 13:15Adam Friedland?

  Oh, God.

• 13:16Speaker 01

  Family.

• 13:17Adam Friedland?

  This is gonna be.

• 13:18Speaker 01

  So to my, to my liberal brother, little Wayne.

• 13:20Adam Friedland?

  Wait, what's, what's your go to, like, uh, toast? Tell me.

• 13:25Speaker 01

  L'Heim.

• 13:25Adam Friedland?

  L'Heim. What's it? Wait, tell me how to say that. Tell me how to say a Haitian toast.

• 13:30Speaker 01

  Nah, we ain't gonna, we just gonna say, you know?

• 13:33Adam Friedland?

  L'Heim.

• 13:33Speaker 01

  Bon la vie.

• 13:34Adam Friedland?

  Yeah. Bon life, bon la vie.

• 13:36Speaker 01

  Good life.

• 13:37Adam Friedland?

  Beautiful, okay, L'Heim.

• 13:38Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 13:41Adam Friedland?

  Okay, um.

• 13:42Speaker 01

  But no, you were saying this little Wayne thing is important while we talk about culture in modern day time. So for me, little Wayne is in a category all by his self. Like, it don't exist. It's like saying Jimi Hendrix. And I'm saying that because.

• 13:58Adam Friedland?

  I feel you on that.

• 13:59Speaker 01

  I've been in the studio with everybody and that dude is on his, on his own planet and on his own time. One of the greatest.

• 14:06Adam Friedland?

  He's like on a, in a flow state, from what I understood.

• 14:09Speaker 01

  Yeah, and when it comes to the women, I ain't being biased, but ain't no woman on the planet that could touch L Boogie.

• 14:16Adam Friedland?

  Oh, I thought you were gonna say that could rap.

• 14:17Speaker 01

  Um, ain't no woman that could touch Lauryn Hill from the Fugees. Period. And I ain't being biased.

• 14:24Adam Friedland?

  You realize that was a genius. You met her and you were like, this is a genius.

• 14:28Speaker 01

  Yeah, so, yeah, so we met very young and a lot of people talk about Fugees, but guess what? The first thing we did, we did an off-Broadway play together called Club 12. And what you see in Hamilton.

• 14:38Adam Friedland?

  Was that before she was in Sister Act?

• 14:39Speaker 01

  Before. And what you see in Hamilton, like, when you go to Broadway Hamilton?

• 14:43Adam Friedland?

  I would never, I would never go.

• 14:44Speaker 01

  Okay, but you just say like, in Hamilton, they doing rap and they doing all of that.

• 14:48Adam Friedland?

  Yeah.

• 14:49Speaker 01

  Man, we was doing that when we was like 12, 13 and people, like, literally flipping Shakespeare and rap for him and it was so ahead of people. And now I guess they, they making money out of it.

• 14:59Adam Friedland?

  One of my favorite songs is, uh, named after you. It's, uh, it's the Young Thug song, Y Club Shock. Which is interesting, cause you're also, you have a feature on that album, but it's not on Y Club Shock.

• 15:11Speaker 01

  Kanye West. Yeah. Yeah, my feature, I'm Kanye West on the video. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Um. Shout out to Thugger too. He's a genius too. I think that he's got that that little magic as well. So Thugger reminds me of modern day Bob Dylan.

• 15:27Speaker 01

  So cool, just to say. So that's what, you know that's my favorite guy. Well, I mean, that's one of my favorites. We were talking about it on FaceTime. That's like, feel me, like I had him in the video, you feel me? Tell us about, so you obviously played Gone Till November, but Bob is in the video. Yeah, yeah. At, just sitting there at LAX, just Bob. Chilling. So how'd that come together? Well, the thing about it is, Bob Dylan, I I I fell in love with with just his movement. Um, when I read about like Hurricane, you feel me? That was like Hurricane was my introduction of Bob Dylan. He says a bad word in that song. Yeah, yeah. But it's fine. Yeah, so Hurricane. For a good cause. Yeah, Hurricane was just, you know, a boxer who, you know, unlawfully get hit or whatever.

• 16:08Speaker 01

  So this is the bottom line to it. So I'm doing a record Gone Till November and I have an epiphany. And I was like, yo, I need Bob Dylan in the video. And this is how it went down, right? Uh huh. The person I asked, because I ain't gonna even like blow him up right now, but I'm gonna tell you exactly what he said. I was like, yo, you know, I had, you know me, I be, let me do it. I was, you know, I had my split, right?

• 16:30Speaker 01

  So Bridgen, you know, me, I think, you know, for the Gone Till November video, why I use Bob Dylan? Who'd you, who was the person? I can't even tell you, but he looked at me. Who's it, Joan Baez? He's looking at me and saying, listen, Bob Dylan don't even show up for his own song video, Jacob Dylan. What makes you think he gonna show up for you? It's true. And I was like, yo, Dylan gonna show up for me, man. So, so, um, I called and got on the phone with with with Dylan, you feel me? And you you already know, you know how Bob Dylan is, you know how he talk already, you understand what I'm saying? Dylan's like, okay, I'm gonna come, LAX. And and and I told everyone, the directors, that Dylan is coming. But I think that, because, so peep this, right? When my daughter.

• 17:15Speaker 01

  was like at a very young age I guess she used to have imaginary friends and I would have to go with it you know oh yeah yeah I think that's how they felt when I told him Bob Dylan was coming like they were playing me on the set like yeah sure he's there he's coming like are you talking to him and he goes here goes the goat you know what I'm saying walking through LAX he comes through and um and I was like literally like you know he came and was like what do you want me to do my brother and he was like you remind me of a base or cool my cool bass player they used to play with me back in the day I was like Mr Dylan I just need you to sit right here and do nothing

• 17:52Adam Friedland?

  wow that is the craziest sign did he tell you he's a fan

• 17:57Speaker 01

  yeah he love he said I remind him of the era you feel me and yeah and I I don't I believe like in the universe like we come back over and over and over again but I never put an age to a musician I'd be like oh he's boom boom boom boom cuz cool musicians that are like all about the music and the art whether it's country classical we all know each other

• 18:18Adam Friedland?

  he's still cool yeah he's still I mean I see him he's still playing I think he's gonna play till he's dead like he's like in his 80s and he looks incredible

• 18:29Speaker 01

  that stage is therapy my bro

• 18:30Adam Friedland?

  he's the best I feel like when you get to a level like that like potentially everyone sees you as a genius so everyone's trying to drop like the most profound thing they've ever said and it must be a very lonely thing for him because everyone's like trying to be like do bars and then they walk away they're like I'm a loser what was I doing you know so it's just what I imagine is like on stage it's like uh he doesn't have to feel like that you know

• 18:57Speaker 01

  yeah I mean Dylan is just one of the best like he's I mean even Jimi Hendrix covered Bob Dylan like Dylan is just a man

• 19:05Adam Friedland?

  the playoff push is heating up and tournament hoops are here and there's no better way to cash in on the high-flying hoops action than the prize picks where it always feels good to be right

• 19:17Speaker 01

  every dime

• 19:18Adam Friedland?

  yeah every bucket every dime every win means more when you play with prize picks that's a little bit offensive

• 19:25Speaker 03

  I apologize. So don't pass up on your next job with PrizePicks and get $50 instantly in lineups when you play your first $5. I've picked players on PrizePicks and can I tell you something? It really, really, it feels good to pick and to be right. Okay? There's so many good players in the league right now. You've got Shay Gildes, Justin Alexander, Luka Doncic, and let's not forget Nikola Jokic. My favorite thing about PrizePicks is picking stats for the same player. PrizePicks is a simple play. Just pick more or less on two to six player stat projections. If you get your picks right, you can cash in. Pick from your favorite sports, anything from basketball, baseball, hockey, UFC, soccer,

• 20:09Speaker 03

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• 20:52Speaker 03

  like, uh, you fell in poop and you went to school after that and then you, you, you would eat.

• 20:57Speaker 01

  Out of everything you don't tell the people.

• 20:58Speaker 03

  Well, it was a good, it was good in.

• 21:02Speaker 01

  It was good poop though.

• 21:03Speaker 03

  Yeah. No, it wasn't good poop. I'm just saying like.

• 21:07Speaker 01

  Slumdog millionaire.

• 21:08Speaker 03

  When I got in Slumdog Millionaire, my impression that I got was like, um, we have this notion of Haiti as like, this like, you know, just.

• 21:18Adam Friedland?

  backwards like you know but like you you referred to it as like you kind of missed it like you kind of like uh enjoyed like your childhood and like uh

• 21:27Speaker 01

  yeah

• 21:28Adam Friedland?

  does it feel like you your life was saved by going to America?

• 21:32Speaker 01

  you ever seen City of Gods?

• 21:33Adam Friedland?

  yeah of course

• 21:34Speaker 01

  alright so at the end of the day it's like beauty and the beast though

• 21:37Adam Friedland?

  yeah

• 21:38Speaker 01

  cuz right you have the most beautiful is beaches

• 21:40Adam Friedland?

  yeah

• 21:41Speaker 01

  you have the most beautiful is things right so uh the way I got to America my dad was a missionary like so literally my dad came on a work visa when I got to America bro what I experienced was the idea at a very young age of what the American dream was

• 22:01Adam Friedland?

  yeah

• 22:01Speaker 01

  like cuz at the end of the day so when you're young like that and you're sitting in that village and you're on a donkey you're like yo if only I could get to America you get I wanna live in America I wanna get to America you know what I'm saying

• 22:14Adam Friedland?

  what was like the first thing that blew your mind when you moved to America? was it like elevators or like I don't know

• 22:20Speaker 01

  ah man it was like from the air cuz remember where I came from I came from a hut so I never seen like real electricity so the thing that blew my mind was in the air yo and I'm looking down and we're going over in New York I remember like the Twin Towers right but then everything like bro the lights it just I looked at my brother and I was like yo

• 22:46Adam Friedland?

  you must have thought you were in acid

• 22:48Speaker 01

  dude we in City of Diamonds

• 22:50Adam Friedland?

  yeah

• 22:50Speaker 01

  yeah yeah it was definitely a trick

• 22:52Adam Friedland?

  like you're seeing Avatar or something yeah

• 22:54Speaker 01

  straight up Avatar it was a complete different world can you imagine I get to the projects and I go to my brother and the first time we trying to force it Bro, and water is coming out of it?

• 23:11Adam Friedland?

  Yeah.

• 23:11Speaker 01

  I don't know what that is.

• 23:12Adam Friedland?

  You didn't know where the faucet was?

• 23:14Speaker 01

  Of course not. I get the water from the well.

• 23:15Adam Friedland?

  And you're like, this is magic.

• 23:17Speaker 01

  It it all looked like magic, the idea of an oven, the idea of an oven. And and then you put it on. So peep this. So the oven gets warm, right? And I remember like in a project at a time where we didn't have no heat, right? And then the heat was coming from the oven. For me, that was just normal.

• 23:37Adam Friedland?

  Yeah.

• 23:39Adam Friedland?

  You're like, I'm the richest guy in the world.

• 23:40Speaker 01

  Come on, bro. It's like the Jeffersons.

• 23:45Adam Friedland?

  I'm the I'm the queen of England now.

• 23:48Speaker 01

  One extreme to the next.

• 23:49Adam Friedland?

  Do you conceive of yourself as the most famous Haitian? You kind of are, no?

• 23:54Speaker 01

  Yeah, on the planet.

• 23:58Adam Friedland?

  Does that come, do you feel a sense of like a responsibility? Is there a weight of like a of that being the?

• 24:04Speaker 01

  I don't even think of it. My brain don't even adjust to that. It's just at the end of the day.

• 24:10Speaker 01

  I just do what I gotta do, man.

• 24:11Adam Friedland?

  What do people like not understand about Haiti?

• 24:16Speaker 01

  I I think what they don't understand about Haiti is every time they hear it's going down in Haiti. And you hear all of this bad news.

• 24:23Adam Friedland?

  Yeah.

• 24:24Speaker 01

  Geographically, they don't say where it's going on. So at the end of the day. If you hear it's going down in Port-au-Prince, right? You could be like, where is it going down? Is it in Kingston? Is it in Montego Bay? Is it right? So in Haiti, when they tell you it's going down, it's like one area in Port-au-Prince, the capital, right? And then there's an area outside of Port-au-Prince. Go naive. Other than that, bro, you go to like places in the north. You're gonna find the most amazing blue beach, white sand that you can imagine. So I think like the PR. Is terrible because we have to identify Haiti as a a full country.

• 24:59Adam Friedland?

  Yeah.

• 25:00Speaker 01

  Not as a just a, yo, it's going down in Haiti, but where in Haiti is it going down?

• 25:05Adam Friedland?

  Correct.

• 25:05Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 25:05Adam Friedland?

  Yeah. Is there conflict inside of you because of like, obviously, the United States has had a complicated relationship with Haiti? Like like, for instance, like after the earthquake, right? Like, most of the money was funneled to Washington DC to NGOs. And they, you know, they devastated the.

• 25:22Speaker 01

  Like in New Orleans.

• 25:24Adam Friedland?

  Well, they were sending over like American rice, right? And so rice farmers in Haiti. Like, uh, lost their farms, basically, because they weren't investing in infrastructure for the people there. They were basically just paying off American interests and like making money off of the earthquake in your country.

• 25:42Speaker 01

  Yeah, so the thing is, I'm a modern day Haitian, right, American, right?

• 25:48Adam Friedland?

  Yeah.

• 25:48Speaker 01

  And what does that mean? That means that I can't look at what was done then, I'm looking at it right now.

• 25:54Adam Friedland?

  That's recent, no?

• 25:55Speaker 01

  And then when I look at it right now, in Jacmel, I have one of the, I'm, I'm, I'm watching how these kids are developing AI. In the past two years, they came, they went to Greece in the world stage, they came in number three, right? And last year, we went to Panama. So what happens is, I have to forward think, right? Not forgetting the past, right? Because I could feel a certain way about the past, but the only way that I'm gonna move things forward, I gotta be present right now, real time, and I gotta be in those rooms that can make a difference for a twelve year old kid.

• 26:27Adam Friedland?

  Do you feel like, now that you're pro, you're so, you're a famous person, right? And you're like, well, like, you're beloved, right? Do you feel like, because the US government is like, like Bill Clinton, like, uh, basically made them promise not to make, uh, uh, the minimum wage five dollars a day, right? You know, and like, uh, you know, Obama basically, you know, didn't make sure that the money was going to Haitian people, it was going to American NGOs and it was funneled out, like, do you, do you feel like, now that you have a profile like that, like, you can lobby, or like, you can communicate with the people in power and be like, this is like, what we need?

• 27:09Speaker 01

  What I, what I love about what you're saying is, you're the new generation, and what I mean by that is, people can't bluff y'all, because the information is actually there.

• 27:18Adam Friedland?

  It's there.

• 27:19Speaker 01

  So as we move forward,

• 27:20Adam Friedland?

  Yeah.

• 27:20Speaker 01

  Um, I count on y'all to have my back.

• 27:23Adam Friedland?

  I got your back.

• 27:24Speaker 01

  At the end of the day, I wanna move forward and see how we get better policies for that country, you know what I'm saying?

• 27:30Adam Friedland?

  What needs to happen in, in your estimation?

• 27:32Speaker 01

  What needs to happen? Eighty percent of the country is living on less than a dollar, right? You have twelve million people, how do we put six million kids back to school and back to work, right? So in order to do that, we need policies that- Or towards them and Haiti can't be a playground for one party.

• 27:51Adam Friedland?

  We need a president too, right?

• 27:52Speaker 01

  Bipartisan. Yeah, but we need a president.

• 27:55Adam Friedland?

  You haven't had one in nine years?

• 27:57Speaker 01

  We need someone that's not a puppet, right? Cause you have to have someone who understands from, you know, how policies work and, and someone who just can't be bought by private sector and also can't be bought by lobbyists in DC, you feel me?

• 28:12Adam Friedland?

  I mean, it's just fascinating to me, just like learning the full history.

• 28:16Speaker 01

  Yeah, man.

• 28:17Adam Friedland?

  I, I wanna talk about music though. You're making seven albums this year. You're locked in.

• 28:23Speaker 01

  Locked in.

• 28:24Adam Friedland?

  How, how, like?

• 28:25Speaker 01

  Eighty percent is done already.

• 28:26Adam Friedland?

  Eighty percent done?

• 28:27Speaker 01

  In the course of five years.

• 28:28Adam Friedland?

  Like you're in, you're, you're thirty years in to your-

• 28:32Speaker 01

  Thirty years in.

• 28:33Adam Friedland?

  Career?

• 28:33Speaker 01

  Yep, and I'm just getting started.

• 28:35Adam Friedland?

  You feel like, you feel that way?

• 28:37Speaker 01

  Well, the-

• 28:37Adam Friedland?

  How do you maintain like that, like that motivation?

• 28:40Speaker 01

  My mentor Quincy Jones, R.I.P. to him.

• 28:42Adam Friedland?

  Wow.

• 28:43Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah. So I feel like I'm in my Thriller years right now.

• 28:47Adam Friedland?

  Really?

• 28:47Speaker 01

  I feel like what I'm about to create and the different artists that I'm gonna work with and the different generations, I feel like I'm in my Thriller years right now. Let's see what happens in the next five years.

• 28:57Adam Friedland?

  Well, Thriller is a very diverse album too, right? All the songs like, kind of like the-

• 29:02Speaker 01

  I just feel like, my Thriller years is like, you know, like Quincy Jones, when he hooked up with Michael? And there was magic that happened, right? So I feel like, Wyclef, G Herbo, there's magic happening.

• 29:15Adam Friedland?

  That's my, you know, he's good on this show too.

• 29:17Speaker 01

  There's magic happening, you know what I'm saying? Wyclef Rap City, there's magic happening. What happens when you connect, like you get what I'm saying? Cause this is like two generations. So when I said the Thriller, Quincy Jones, I feel like, this is like, I feel like I'm a bridge to like, cause my passion has always been the music, man.

• 29:35Adam Friedland?

  Right.

• 29:35Speaker 01

  So I'm, I'm a music man, yeah.

• 29:37Adam Friedland?

  Earlier you said that like hip hop for you in your generation was the underground. For me it was pop. Pop music, right? Hip-hop was the dominant art. Like, I've been a fan of yours probably my entire life. Like, I got in trouble on my baseball team because we were singing Killing, Killing Him Softly.

• 29:54Speaker 01

  One time!

• 29:55Adam Friedland?

  Yeah, and like, we had to run laps because we were singing a girl song. Our coach thought we were gay or something, I don't know. But like, uh, but like, for me personally, like, uh, what's, what's interesting is like, you made this iconic album with this group, you know? And you, you and Lauren, like, and Pras, like, you, you guys had this, like, synergy. Which was, it was your second album, is that right?

• 30:18Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, yeah. Southmore, man, yeah, the Southmore album.

• 30:21Adam Friedland?

  Did you know you were cooking something, uh, like, historic? Did it feel that way?

• 30:25Speaker 01

  Well, it just felt like we was cooking something amazing because we didn't produce the first album.

• 30:29Adam Friedland?

  Yeah.

• 30:29Speaker 01

  The first album, we were signing Cool in the Gang.

• 30:32Adam Friedland?

  Really?

• 30:33Speaker 01

  Joanna, you know what I mean? So, the, the producer was Kalis Beyon, who's a genius.

• 30:39Adam Friedland?

  Uh-huh.

• 30:39Speaker 01

  And then so, with the score, it was like, so, could you imagine? So, everything we was doing in the first album, when, when we went back to the neighborhood, it wasn't sounding like that. So, that's when we was at me, my cousin Jerry Wonder, you know, Lorne, Pras, we was in the basement, John Forte.

• 30:55Adam Friedland?

  Wow.

• 30:55Speaker 01

  The NPCs, that, you know, because we could hear the block. Like, literally, the booger basement is there, the crack house is right behind. Like, I'm telling you, it's the neighborhood. So, we was just cooking, and one day, I went to see my man, Salam Remy. And Salam is the one who's responsible for Amy Winehouse, a whole lot of different people.

• 31:13Adam Friedland?

  He's at A and R or something?

• 31:14Speaker 01

  No, he's a producer.

• 31:15Adam Friedland?

  Producer.

• 31:15Speaker 01

  Little, young, little genius.

• 31:17Adam Friedland?

  Yeah.

• 31:17Speaker 01

  So, we clicked, and once we clicked, um, I just, we just kept doing these beats, and, um, and then it just, um, you know Fat Joe?

• 31:26Adam Friedland?

  Yeah, of course.

• 31:27Speaker 01

  So, when you hear the beat, ooh la la la, is the way, that beat originally was the Fat Joe. Shout out to Fat Joe, but the Fugees took the beat from Fat Joe, so...

• 31:36Adam Friedland?

  And also, uh, something I learned was that in, uh, uh, in Him So Lie, that, uh, the, that one guitar live is inspired by cream.

• 31:47Speaker 01

  But, yeah. Yeah, so, so. It's Wu-Tang, yeah, like. Well, I was saying, I was saying that Hips Don't Lie was done two years before y'all heard Hips Don't Lie. I did it for a movie called Havana Nights. Do you know the story behind that movie? Havana Nights? Yeah. Havana Nights being, um. Dirty Dancing Two. Yeah, Dirty Dancing Two. It was originally a completely different script. It got bought, it was a political thriller. Mm-hmm. And by the time the studio was done with it, it became Dirty Dancing Two Havana Nights, yeah. Yeah. It was like, supposed to be like, like, uh, like, completely different. In a dark. It's like a legendary story. Yeah, no. Like Hollywood, yeah. Yeah. Which they do, they. Yeah, they're like.

• 32:30Speaker 01

  But, yo, that's, that's where that song was first done, two years before Shaqy. Yeah. My favorite of your, like, soundtrack songs is with Maya, of course. Man, you know what, you're taking me way back, so. That is such a good fucking song. So now, watch this, so, out of one of my seven albums, you can understand why one's a country album, right? Well, I also saw you did a cover of Johnny Cash at that one, uh. Cash was there, he was there, man. Before he passed. Yeah, um, I did that with my man, Rick Rubin called me in for that. Yeah. You just know all these guys? Huh? You know all these guys? I mean, you know, I'm pretty legend, fam. That's crazy. I've been around, I've been around since a baby. Life is cool. You're very, you're very nice for being so, uh, accomplished.

• 33:16Speaker 01

  Yeah, 'cause at the end of the day, whether I'm accomplished, you're accomplished, or whether, whether, whether you're accomplished, I'm not, or blah, blah, blah. At the end of the day, what, look, you see what we doing, the air that we breathing. It's the same? It's the same, bro. That's so nice of you to say. The dirt, we go to the same dirt, my brother. So at the end of the day, respect is respect, you did. Yeah, no, here you go, you're a legend. Nah, respect's respect, baby. Um, you dropped Carnival a year after the score? Yeah, and the label thought I was out of my mind.

• 33:44Adam Friedland?

  How did you, how did you after like such an intense period of your career, right? Of you with that group making like a classic album, how did you flip like? That has like twenty-five tracks or something. It's like a long ass album.

• 33:57Speaker 01

  Yeah, Carnival. Audiovisual.

• 34:00Adam Friedland?

  I had, my friend burned me that CD.

• 34:03Speaker 01

  Audiovisual.

• 34:04Adam Friedland?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 34:04Speaker 01

  A lot of weed smoking.

• 34:06Adam Friedland?

  Really?

• 34:07Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 34:07Adam Friedland?

  How, what's your, what's your style like in the studio? You just could, it just comes out of you? Your Wayne style?

• 34:13Speaker 01

  Well, yeah, but you know, I'm from the church. So like coming up in the church and being in the church since I was ten, yeah. I felt like the spirit connect, um, and we just go with it. But Carnival was like one of those again. It defied what they said hip-hop was. Like you go back, it was, it was ahead of its time. Like you didn't miss it. Half people got it, y'all got it, but then there was a whole nother crew who didn't know what the hell I was talking about. Twenty-five tracks, dude, I had over twenty different rhythms. Do you know what Carnival is? It's a playlist today. Bad Bunny, Jay-Z, Fifty Cent, you get what I'm saying? It's a playlist of everything.

• 34:51Adam Friedland?

  Yeah.

• 34:51Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 34:52Adam Friedland?

  But it's just so prolific, that's what I'm saying, like it's, you, it was just coming out of you, it was just flowing.

• 34:57Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 34:58Adam Friedland?

  Yeah.

• 34:58Speaker 01

  That's the spirit, baby, that's the church.

• 35:00Adam Friedland?

  It's church.

• 35:01Speaker 01

  I can't even like take no credit for that.

• 35:03Adam Friedland?

  Really?

• 35:03Speaker 01

  They throw me in the church at twelve years old and you gotta go with it, you know what I mean?

• 35:07Adam Friedland?

  Are your parents still with us?

• 35:09Speaker 01

  Yeah, my dad passed away. Um, my mom's still here, she running the church in South Orange Avenue. But you said something which is, which is ill, it clicked to me. So, one day I was in church, you know, young prodigy and putting all the music together. And I noticed in the hymn book, I ran out of fucking songs. And then I went to my dad and I was like, yo, I'm out of songs. And he looked at me, he said, well, you make up a song then. He said, because somebody out there have cancer, they depend on you. Some student out there, they pressuring they head, they SAT, they not gonna pass it, they need you. So, to your point, it's like, so when-

• 35:47Adam Friedland?

  You remember the song?

• 35:48Speaker 01

  So when I come out, that's, just the music in general. So when I do music, right, I think of those that I can't see, but are going through things.

• 35:58Adam Friedland?

  Yeah.

• 35:59Speaker 01

  If that makes sense.

• 35:59Adam Friedland?

  Yeah.

• 36:00Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 36:01Adam Friedland?

  And you feel like you're better at music than you've ever been? Is it, is it a progression that's like linear?

• 36:07Speaker 01

  Yo fam, I'm telling you right now, I'm better than I've ever been, man.

• 36:11Adam Friedland?

  That's amazing, yeah.

• 36:13Speaker 01

  Like, I'm better than I've ever been. Yeah.

• 36:16Adam Friedland?

  That's awesome.

• 36:18Speaker 01

  Yes, sir.

• 36:19Adam Friedland?

  So cool. I'm coming out with eight albums this year, actually.

• 36:22Speaker 01

  Alright, baby, let's go it.

• 36:24Adam Friedland?

  Yeah.

• 36:24Speaker 01

  Put, let me get a feature on one, you know?

• 36:26Adam Friedland?

  Oh, yeah, yeah, but for, for free.

• 36:30Adam Friedland?

  Nah, I, I think, um, what about entertaining people do you love so much? Like...

• 36:37Speaker 01

  Well, I'm a born entertainer, and what I love about entertainment is, every time you see me on the stage and you see me going crazy, those that's been on Wyclef's show, they're like, "Where that energy come from?"

• 36:47Adam Friedland?

  Yeah.

• 36:48Speaker 01

  Bro, I'm celebrating life. When you see me on that stage, I'm celebrating life and I'm reminding y'all how important it is to, it's a good thing to be alive. And at the end of the day, we take that most little thing for granted, right?

• 37:03Adam Friedland?

  Yeah.

• 37:03Speaker 01

  Cause we ain't promised tomorrow, so when you come to my show, I'm gonna give you, remember like Prince 1999? I'm gonna treat every day like it's 1999.

• 37:10Adam Friedland?

  Yeah.

• 37:11Speaker 01

  Almost like the world's gonna be over the next day. So what I love the most, yo, I do shows and people come up to me and be like, "Bro, I was thinking about offering myself, and then I heard this song, 'Someone Please Call 911,' and I changed my mind."

• 37:27Adam Friedland?

  Really?

• 37:27Speaker 01

  I've done shows, people came to me like, "Yo, good looking, man. If it wasn't for you, I wouldn't have smashed that, baby, you know what I'm saying? We married now." So, at the end of the day, I know my assignment, you feel what I'm saying to you? And, like all my peers, I'm just a music man, I get it.

• 37:45Adam Friedland?

  Yeah.

• 37:45Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 37:46Adam Friedland?

  Do you feel like, um, do you feel like, um, you are afforded your, your flowers adequately? Do you, or do you not even care?

• 37:56Speaker 01

  I don't really care.

• 37:57Adam Friedland?

  Yeah.

• 37:57Speaker 01

  The reason why I don't care is because...

• 37:58Adam Friedland?

  It seems like you don't.

• 37:59Speaker 01

  I don't, because when you look at Bob Marley, he don't have one Grammy. When you look at Jimi Hendrix, when you look at Thelonious Monk, when you look at The Illus, I, I got the assignment. Right, and my assignment is to, to, to raise the higher consciousness of the human race. And I have, I have to do that, I'm gonna do that. That's just my assignment.

• 38:20Adam Friedland?

  You ever think, you ever look at Bob Marley in, in the face and he, he looks like James Franco, almost exactly.

• 38:26Speaker 01

  You seen the young pictures of Bob?

• 38:28Adam Friedland?

  Very handsome guy.

• 38:28Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 38:29Adam Friedland?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 38:29Speaker 01

  Bob before the drizz, right?

• 38:31Adam Friedland?

  Yeah, I, it would be so dope if we got to meet him, just the three of us got to chill.

• 38:36Speaker 01

  Yeah, that'd, that'd, that'd definitely be a lot of smoking.

• 38:40Adam Friedland?

  Oh my god, I would, I would, I would, I would try and, I would try and act like I like.

• 38:45Speaker 01

  A lot of chalice, man.

• 38:46Adam Friedland?

  Um, yeah, I, I mean, like, um.

• 38:50Speaker 01

  Wait, speaking of chalice, have you ever hit the bong, like chalice?

• 38:55Adam Friedland?

  What, what do you think?

• 38:55Speaker 01

  Like Rastafar, you've been to Jamaica?

• 38:58Adam Friedland?

  Yeah, of course.

• 38:59Speaker 01

  So you've hit like the actual chalice, the bong?

• 39:01Adam Friedland?

  Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 39:02Speaker 01

  Okay, my man, okay.

• 39:03Adam Friedland?

  No, no, of course.

• 39:04Speaker 01

  You know the vibe.

• 39:04Adam Friedland?

  I do it regularly.

• 39:05Speaker 01

  You know the vibe?

• 39:06Adam Friedland?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 39:07Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 39:07Adam Friedland?

  I, but I, I'm bad at weed.

• 39:10Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 39:10Adam Friedland?

  Yeah, it makes me think of everything I say throughout the day and then I'm like, everyone hates you and why did you say that?

• 39:17Speaker 01

  But you've hit the bong, though.

• 39:19Adam Friedland?

  Yeah, I've hit a bong before, bro.

• 39:20Speaker 01

  Alright, cool, cool, my man.

• 39:22Adam Friedland?

  Um, I, I, uh.

• 39:24Speaker 01

  Half-baked.

• 39:25Adam Friedland?

  You performed, you performed recently again with Lauren. Is there an ambition, like, will we ever see, uh, you guys make music together again?

• 39:35Speaker 01

  The greatest ambition that's there is like, I got my sister back.

• 39:40Adam Friedland?

  Yeah.

• 39:41Speaker 01

  And what I mean by that is at the end of the day, um, I'm, I'm an uncle to Lauren's kids. I can't even act, you know what I mean? They call me Unc. You feel what I'm saying to you?

• 39:52Adam Friedland?

  Yeah.

• 39:52Speaker 01

  And at the end of the day, that magic that we have, that, you know, when we create music or, you know what I'm saying, that energy.

• 40:02Adam Friedland?

  You got me trapped. You have to.

• 40:04Speaker 01

  Just the fact.

• 40:07Speaker 01

  I can do a beat and be like, yo sis, check this out. I'm content. Oh, bro, check this out, I'm content. Now, what that lies in the universe is the most amazing thing, right? Because none of us know what's gonna happen. But I can tell you what I feel though. Magic's in the air.

• 40:27Adam Friedland?

  They're getting back together. They're getting back together. They're getting back together. They're getting back together. They're getting back together. Uh, I, I honestly, I've been trying to keep it cool. Uh, I think maybe a little bit or no. Have I embarrassed myself?

• 40:41Speaker 01

  Nah, you chill.

• 40:42Adam Friedland?

  Okay, great. It's, it's just an honor for you to be here. I, I appreciate you coming on so much.

• 40:47Speaker 01

  Already.

• 40:48Adam Friedland?

  Give it up for Yungo Chong.