Wyclef Week Ends

The Preacher's Son will have to head to the back of the class again starting next week. But for now, we'll close out this Friday afternoon with the second set of outtakes from the Scratch Wyclef/TI cover story in the September/October issue.

On Clef Records:

"I still got Clef Records. I’m just debating with the name right now with everything going on. And I also got a world beat label, which is called Sak Passe Records. I gotta find those acts that are like me. So if you wanna be with Clef records or Sak Passe Records, you just gotta be totally different. If you’re coming to me and you rhyming in more languages, you that motherfucker that I’m gonna fuck with. We still got Trini from Trinidad. I got a girl named Nia, she’s 18 years old. She sounds like Nancy Sinatra."

On working with other artists:

[I’m learning that] no matter how good the records are, you gotta have the right cast on them. And certain people just are better for certain records, because you could do something, and you could say, 'This shit sound like a hit.' Like what I did for the Ying Yang Twinz. I thought the beat was crazy. I could take that same beat, throw a Pee-wee Herman sample under that shit and it might be some weird motherfucker outta nowhere with the right swagger and that whole shit might…You gonna hit, you gonna miss, but there has to be consistency in what you do, and I feel certain people sound better on certain records than others. I like to do three or four records on a person. And then I like to sit back and hear what the crowd is saying. And then from what the crowd is saying I say, 'Hmm, alright this is the next song.'"

On his studio Platinum Sound:

Everybody that’s in the music industry has been through Platinum. And nothing but good things have been said about this studio. I built it so that it is artist generated. So everybody, whether it’s 50 Cent, Jay-Z’s artists, Neptunes, Kanye West, everybody has recorded here. And for me its an accomplishment to have a place that the whole industry… artists really love the gear, they really put the studio at a high standard. Artists are very picky. The place that they like is the place that they work. It always feels good there three hundred sixty five days of the year.

On The Fugees last tour:

They had me do this tour, and this is what completely messed the whole shit up. We go on tour in Europe, cause [Lauryn’s] trying to work now. Every time, before the actual Fugees come on, I’m on stage performing one hour killing the time. Every concert, you know what I’m saying? Because she gotta get her hair, her nails and her face done. And I’m on stage for one hour and we all getting paid the same amount. I felt, come on, if that’s the case I’m taking half of that. I want thirty percent from you. Don’t play now. This is America. [Lauryn] wasn’t good with that, but I’m just saying, I’m over here on stage for an hour. Pras is coming on, he helping me out, we keeping the crowd going so we could wait for her? Na bro, that…that…that can’t happen, brother. I finished it because it’s professional and I didn’t go on the tour for Lauryn, I went cause of Pras.

On songwriters:

I think [Neyo’s] a great writer. I like when you can write for anyone and fit the styles. I think he’s great. The game now is driven by songwriters. It’s like every other thing is irrelevant. The people making the money now are people doing the writing. It’s back to the way the fuck it was.