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Music on the Road

Wyclef Jean unmasks past on new album

By Rachel Wells
CNN Entertainment Correspondent

(CNN) -- Wyclef Jean calls his third and latest solo album, "Masquerade," a musical autobiography.

If that seems a little premature, well, "Clef" has packed a lot of success into his 29 years. As a founding member of the best-selling rap act of all time, The Fugees, he's credited with taking hip-hop culture mainstream.

The first single, "Two Wrongs" -- with City High's Claudette Ortiz -- is heating up the charts.

He talked with CNN about the album, his post-Fugees career, his father's death, and his recent arrest at a demonstration in New York City.

CNN: You're what, 29? Kind of young to be doing an autobiography, aren't you?

Jean: Nah, it was the theme. I did it right after my father passed September 3rd, 2001, and my mindset was like, I went all the way back to when I was young with my dad to like now. It's sort of like me telling the stories of how I was growing up seeing him and how he made me the man that I was.

CNN: Was it your dad's passing away that make you go back into the studio for yourself?

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Watch Wyclef Jean's new video 'Two Wrongs' featuring Claudette Ortiz of City High (June 26) Play video

Jean: Definitely, that's what made me go back into a solo album. Cause I was just working on other productions and that's the thing that made me stop. I felt like I can't do music for anyone else right now. I wouldn't know write for them. I went back to Clef music, music for Clef fans and that's what we came up with.

CNN: Why did you choose the title, "Masquerade"?

Jean: The autobiography starts off with me going back to the old neighborhood. But that kid was like, "I'm on a corner and I don't know what I'm going to do with my life." An old man comes up and he's like, "Yo, you can choose this life right here with the drugs, the money, the women, you know, which is life of money [and] fame but it's a masquerade. Or you can just choose to work hard, and make an honest living. It's going to take longer, but that's not a masquerade. And you'll live longer and have more wealthy like that."

CNN: Why did you choose to put the lyrics of your life story to the [Four Seasons] song, "Oh What a Night"?

Jean: That's the song [from] when my father used to work at a place called the Ramada Inn. É If you all know anything about Ramada Inns or the Sheratons every Friday and Saturday you have a cover band performing. We used to love the cover bands. É

Whenever the band came in with that "Oh What a Night" me and my brother we'd lose it É [we'd] start singing, "late December," you know. My father would run in and yell, "Go back to work." It was just a perfect rhythm for us to tell this story in and to get people to listen, because they already know the beat.

CNN: What did the Fugees do at the time that seemed so special?

Jean: I think we came in with an eclectic style. É Like rap was around but nobody knew about Enya from Europe and sampling Enya. É Nobody thought of combining Enya, and then Lauryn [Hill] comes in and sings "Ready of Not" on top of that Enya. Rappers were not thinking about singing Roberta Flack's "Killling Me Softly" cause they were too busy rapping. É

So we bought a musical element side to it. We came in as a hip-hop band per se and that was something we didn't see no one doing when we were doing it.

CNN: What made everyone break off and go solo, then?

Jean: It was by accident É No one was really trying to go solo. Lauryn was pregnant at the time so it was like, OK, take nine months to have the kid. É And I did "The Carnival" and then things got a little weird. And then she came back and did "Miseducation." So in the period of me doing "The Carnival," I went on to produce Destiny's Child and a whole lot of other acts, so the solo thing was something that happened by accident.

CNN: Are the Fugees ever coming back together?

Jean: I want to do a Fugees record. I'd love to go back to the studio with the Fugees. They had the vibe, a certain vibe that no matter who I work with they don't have that vibe.

CNN: You were arrested earlier this month in front of New York's City Hall protesting city school budget cuts. Why is that issue so close to your heart?

Jean: When I heard that they were cutting back budget for public schools for kids I just went down there in an effort to speak on behalf of the kids and É I passed the barricade. One guy, I guess he was a sergant something, he was clearly screaming at my face. I was calm, I wasn't going to move because that's the time when you're most challenged. And I looked at the eyes of the kids and the kids wanted me to speak. I was like, well it's either I speak or take me away because these kids I can't really speak on their own behalf. So me leaving is like letting them down. Couldn't let that happen.

CNN: You've just writtten your life story, are you living a dream?

Jean: Everyday is a dream for me in life. Awhile back, I remember I woke up and my bell was ringing and I go get the bell. I'm in my sweats, my hair pulled back, and the man says, "Is your mom home? I need someone to sign for this."

Then it struck me. I look too young to be living in this house here. This house is a house you get when you're like 45 years old. What am I doing in this big house? I felt so little. Everyday I wake up I'm just happy.