Wyclef Jean Biography

Wyclef Jean, musician/producer

Birthdate: October 17, 1972

Birthplace: Croix-des-Bouquets, Haiti

Sign: Libra

Born as Nelust Wyclef Jean in Haiti, he was later named Wyclef Jean by his pastor foster father. They moved to Brooklyn, New York when he was nine before settling in New Jersey in the early 1980s.

During his teenage years in New Jersey, he took up guitar in school and got into jazz. He started a rap group with Prakazral Samuel Michel, a fellow Haitian who goes with the shorter name Pras, and Michel's classmate, Lauren Hill. They originally called their group The Tranzlator Crew, which was later renamed to the more popularly known The Fugees, tribute to Haitian refugees.

Before embarking on a worldwide success, The Fugees' 1993 debut album, Blunted On Reality, first suffered poor reception. The meager album sales was most probably due to their rapcore approach, a lesson they had learned and remembered when they started their follow up album, The Score. The sophomore record, an eclectic, bohemian masterpiece released in 1996, became a chart-topping phenomenon. Their "Fu-Gee-La" and "Killing Me Softly" singles helped the record sold over 6 million copies and became one of the biggest selling rap albums of all time.

Jean was the first Fugees to embark on a solo career. Aside from seven released solo albums, he has also done soundtrack songs, also, he produced and wrote songs for the 2003 documentary "The Agronomist."

The Fugees reunited and performed in September 2004 at a concert in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. Their performance received mostly positive reviews, which encouraged further group reunion. However, after embarking on a European tour in 2005, their then-upcoming album did not materialize due to the waning relationship between the members. Michel and Jean were both separately quoted that they were not in accord with Hill.

In 1994, he married Marie Claudinette Pierre-Jean, a Haitian-American former pre-med student turned fashion designer. They have one adopted daughter, Angelina Claudinelle, born in March 2005.

In 2005, Jean formed the Yele Haiti charity foundation. Along with Yele Haiti, the UN World Food Program, and the Pan American Development Foundation, Jean created Together For Haiti, a fundraising and awareness campaign that provides resources for crucial programs in Haiti.

He became a roving ambassador for Haiti in January 2007.