hit for Whitney Houston ; starting his own Jamaican style sound system, Refugee Sound; and making dub plates, the specialized recordings that are essential to ‘killing’ an opponent in a sound clash. Yet he’s never recorded a reggae album — that is, until now.is Wyclef’s debut roots reggae venture, recorded at The Compound in Kingston, Jamaica, a studio/rehearsal space owned by reggae artist Tom Jones, a.k.a. Panic, the album’s executive producer.
Wyclef interrupted our interview to pick up his vibrating cell phone, which signaled the arrival of Lauryn Hill’s dub plate of “Ex-Factor,” the second single from. Instead of the romantic difficulties depicted in the original, the lyrics to Hill’s new dub are aimed at a rival sound system: “no sound can clash like Refugee, and no one ever will,” sings Hill with the impassioned soulfulness heard on the original.
Born in Haiti, the world’s first free, Black-led republic, Wyclef immigrated to the U.S. at nine years old. He grew up listening to hip-hop and winning school rap battles. A self-taught musician who plays 14 instruments, teenaged Wyclef also played upright bass in a jazz band, sang in the choir and listened to heavy metal, country and classical music.