Grammy award-winning hip hop artist and political activist Wyclef Jean on his roots, his music – his Haitian homeland. He joins us.

Wyclef Jean attends a party to benefit Donna Karan’s Hope, Help and Rebuild Haiti charity, in New York, Tuesday, Sept, 20, 2011. (AP)

Singer, rapper, activist Wyclef Jean was born in Haiti, a kid in Brooklyn and Newark, a big star with the Fugees  – with Lauryn Hill and his cousin Pras – by the mid-‘90s.  Son of a preacher, grandson of a voodoo priest, named after a Christian rebel, Wyclef Jean kept on rolling.

A superstar in Haiti, he was back after the earthquake with relief work and controversy.  Staggered by the destruction.  He put his name up for the Haitian presidency.  And he’s still making waves.

This hour, On Point:  Wyclef Jean on Haiti, America, and a life between.

-Tom Ashbrook

 Guests

Wyclef Jean, musician, activist and artist. His new book is Purpose: An Immigrant’s Story.

From Tom’s Reading List

Washington Post “Wyclef Jean doesn’t speak in the same smooth flow with which he raps. He chooses his words carefully and spits them out slowly, like he’s learned the hard way the weight they can bear.”

Daily Beast “In his new autobiography, Wyclef Jean recounts in vivid detail the story of his climb to the top with the Fugees, the affair with Lauryn Hill that brought an end to the group—and the two men he wanted to murder in Haiti.”

MTV  “The Haitian-born musician weaves a vivid tale for his readers, revealing that Hill began dating the father of her children, Rohan Marley, during the period when she was still romantically involved with ‘Clef. In the book, Wyclef admits that he was jealous of Hill’s new relationship, despite having his own marriage, but when she became pregnant, he was led to believe that he was the father of her son.”

Video

Check out Wyclef Jean’s take on this Pink Floyd classic.

Excerpt

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