12427: Knight Ridder Newspapers: The Hatian-American dream (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: JD Lemieux <lxhaiti@yahoo.com>

The Hatian-American dream
Thursday, June 27, 2002

By EVELYN MCDONNELL
Knight Ridder Newspapers



Wyclef Jean hopes to do for Haitian and other Caribbean
music what other artists did for Latin and reggae by
starting a world beat label, Sak Passe (Creole for \

"Sweet Micky is an MVP!" Wyclef Jean bellows as he enters a
mansion in Miami Beach one recent day.

The erstwhile member of one of the biggest-selling hip-hop
acts ever, the Fugees, is filming the video for "MVP
Kompa," a track from his third album, "Masquerade." Sweet
Micky, the charismatic Haitian star, is with him. Jean
performs the song, set to the sweet beat of Haitian compas,
or kompa, in Creole.

"The story line is about a kid who comes to America and
works hard and achieves what he wants: to become the MVP,"
Jean says.

But MVP stands not just for most valuable player, but for
multicultural visionary pioneer, he explains. The MVPs are
an honorary posse, an extension of the Refugee Camp he
formed around the Fugees.

"The way he became this MVP is he took the compas and mixed
it with the hip-hop and the reggae, and he mashed it all
into one sound. He's the MVP," Jean, 31, says in
characteristically smug fashion. "And that's me."

The video tells this rags-to-riches story with footage shot
at the mansion, on a boat, and in Miami's Little Haiti. In
what's probably a first for a CD on a major label, the
"MVP" video is being released to Caribbean outlets at the
same time the video for the pop song "Two Wrongs," also
from "Masquerade," is sent to MTV. It's a novel move by the
rapper, guitarist, songwriter, and producer who has almost
single-handedly brought Haitian culture to the American pop
market.

"The Little Haiti part of the video represents the
inspiration," Jean says. "It represents where my whole
energy comes from. It's to show kids you can go from a
position of ghettoism to wherever you want to get to. Don't
let nobody tell you different."

Jean's message to kids was given new visibility earlier
this month when he made headlines after being arrested in
New York at a rally protesting cuts in the city's schools
budget. Police said the rapper was trying to perform, and
that the organizers, the Hip-Hop Summit Action Network, did
not have a license for performances. Jean and organizers
maintain he was merely trying to speak.

Either way, it's another controversial incident in a career
by an artist who has strived for both mainstream
respectability and street cred.

Jean's biography is proof that "MVP" is not just a Horatio
Alger fantasy. Born in Haiti, Jean moved with his family to
Brooklyn when he was 9, and then to East Orange. In 1996,
the onetime drug-dealing projects kid became a pop star;
the Fugees' second album, "The Score," was a worldwide
crossover smash, selling more than 11 million copies and
winning two Grammys.

The Fugees soon imploded, but each of its members - Jean,
Lauryn Hill, and Pras - went on to successful solo careers.
Jean's 1997 debut, "The Carnival," was widely praised for
its pan-Caribbean vision. Jean, who gave Destiny's Child
its signature sound on its song "No, No, No," also became
an in-demand producer.

And yet when his father, a preacher, died in an accident
last September (a car he was working on collapsed on top of
him), Jean suddenly felt that maybe fame and fortune were
lies - a masquerade. On "Masquerade," he looks back at his
life in search of meaning.

"The reason it's called 'Masquerade' is because it's like
my autobiography," Jean says over the phone from New York a
few weeks after the video shoot and one week after his
arrest. "After my dad died, I wanted to take y'all back to
where me and my father started off. I remember being a
shorty in the 'hood, and he was like, you can take the ways
of the guns, the drugs, and the violence, but that's a
masquerade. Or you can do it the honest way, but that's not
a masquerade, and you'll be successful at the end."

Jean compares himself to Emilio Estefan and Island Records
founder Chris Blackwell. He hopes to do for Haitian and
other Caribbean music what they did for Latin and reggae by
starting a world beat label, Sak Passe (Creole for "What's
up?"). He predicts the label will be up and running in a
few months.

"Compas can be in those forefronts if it's done right,"
Jean explains. "The same way Chris Blackwell put reggae on
the map, the compas beat is an incredible beat. The reason
it's at a standstill and hasn't gone past a certain level
is people don't understand what's being said. If I could
take some of the beats and get some of the artists to voice
it in English, then people would start viewing it
differently. Then they'll be able to understand."

Compas, however, has nowhere near as big an established
audience as Latin music and no stars with the enormous
talent of a Bob Marley.

"You should maximize the potential in your community
first," says Cynthia Blanc, producer of the Haitian Music
and Entertainment Awards and publisher of the magazine
Tambour Battant.

Still, Blanc says, if anyone can help Haitian music reach a
larger audience, it's Jean. "He has the secret ingredient,"
she continues. "Most of the musicians and artists, at least
the younger generation, see him as a role model and
motivational tool to try to cross over. He can tell them
what they need to add to what they're doing now to appeal
to other nationalities. Young Haitian people are already
proud of saying they're Haitian because of him."

Copyright © 2002 North Jersey Media Group Inc.


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