Wyclef Jean: What if you threw a gig for stoners and they were, like, whatever or whatever?

4/20 is, according to Wikipedia, a secular holiday in America - it's not, it's just a day when people who haven't quite got over being pleased with themselves at smoking dope gather to be pleased with themselves in public. It's pretending to be part of a counterculture from firmly within mainstream culture.

To mark the day, Colorado University in Boulder booked Wyclef Jean to do a gig. Although the stressed that he wasn't to mark the day:

From item twelve in the contract ("The Agency Shall" section):

"The Agency shall ensure that Attraction avoids making direct referrences to marijuana and other illegal drugs or make 4/20 related remarks as this is a University sponsored event."

It's like booking Perry Como to do a Christmas Eve set and making him sign a waiver barring him from mentioning Holidays, Jesus or gifts.

So, how did it go, then? Not well, as Jean played to a mostly empty room.

Westword was speculating there were 400 people in the 11,000-capacity venue; even if that number doubled as the evening went on, with Jean getting a flat-fee of $80,000 for the event, that'd make it a $100-a-head event.

Moral: probably don't bother holding a big event on a day when everyone is getting out their faces. They should probably have spent the fee they gave Jean on Curly-Wurlys and crisps.

Wyclef Jean: Not shot?

Yesterday, Jeff Jarvis seemed to be grumping that mainstream media had used the word "shot" in headlines about Wyclef Jean, despite the bullet only grazing his hand - personally speaking, if a bullet has been close enough to do me any damage, I'm going to say I've been shot.

Turns out, though, that the facts might be on Jarvis' side. Not because of 'not shot enough' pedantry, but because Jean wasn't shot at all, according to Haiti police:

Jean said, “The way I can explain it is that the bullet grazed me in my right hand. I heard blow, blow, blow and I just looked at my hand.” Doctors at the hospital where he was patched up and ace-bandaged beg to differ. Police chief Vanel Lacroix told Reuters he, “met with the doctor who saw him and he confirmed Wyclef was cut by glass.”

The Fader reckons that this might be Haiti police trying to play down election violence. It's probably a question of who you trust the most.

Wyclef Jean: shot

Although his own plans to run Haiti fell down in the face of the nation's constitution, Wyclef Jean is still busy with the presidential campaign there. He's been campaigning for Michel Martelly in the second-round vote.

He's been shot in the hand for his troubles.

Never happened to Gary Barlow when he was out on the stump. And he was supporting David Cameron.

Hosni Mubarak: My part in his downfall

John Rentoul has a useful feature on on his twitter feed where he lists questions to which the answer can only be no.

He's just nominated this question from the New Statesman:

Wyclef Jean's contribution to the Egyptian revolution

Is the Haitian rapper the real reason behind Mubarak's exit?

Of course he isn't, and it's as insulting as the frequent claims of David Hasselhoff to have somehow brought down the Berlin Wall. But why would you think Jean was responsible at all, Susannah Butter and Victoria Mitchell?

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Wyclef Jean's contribution to the Egyptian revolution

Posted by Susannah Butter and Victoria Mitchell - 11 February 2011 17:45

Is the Haitian rapper the real reason behind Mubarak's exit?

When not fermenting revolution in north African states or running for president in Haiti, Wyclef Jean is a rapper. Photo: Getty Images.

The Egyptian people triumphed today - but not without a little help from former Fugees rapper and erstwhile Haitian presidential candidate, Wyclef Jean.

The rapper uploaded his song "'Freedom' (Song for Egypt)" onto YouTube this morning. This afternoon, Hosni Mubarak stepped down. Coincidence?

Yes.

I will, however, offer a full and frank apology if two weeks of protests and the deaths of hundreds failed to move Mubarak but a bandwagon-jumping tune from Wyclef Jean made he give up.

Wyclef Jean enters comfortable hospital bed

Given that he was supposed to be fighting a difficult presidential campaign right now, since Wyclef Jean has been hospitalised with fatigue, perhaps it's lucky he didn't make it onto the ballot after all.

Jean behaves like a statesman

When it first became clear that Wyclef Jean might not qualify to be president of Haiti, his team made some encouraging noises about how what really mattered was the process being followed; that making sure that rules are applied.

That the election doesn't turn into a circus.

It will be in that spirit, then, that Jean has recorded a song having a go at the electoral commission:

The song is called “Prison for the CEP,” referring to the electoral commission, whose decision he wants to overturn in court.

Mr. Jean also chides President Rene Preval as he sings in Creole, the French-derived language spoken by most Haitians.

Yes. That'll stop the whole process descending into a personality-driven sideshow. It's exactly what Andrew Jackson would have done.

Wyclef Jean: He's Haiti's Obama

And we use "Haiti's Obama" in the sense of 'being challenged to prove he actually is a citizen and thus eligible for the Presidency'.

Of course, Obama's "birthers" were half-crazed, half-deluded twits; those suggesting Jean is ineligible have a bit more heft to them:

By late Thursday, lawyers for the Provisional Electoral Council had compiled 20 pages of legal documents -- including passport records -- that they said show Jean is not a Haitian resident.

Jean, as is his style, is waving this all aside with claims that the paperwork is all pretty solid and there's no need to worry that anything might be wrong.

Bringing exactly the same approach he used for his charity paperwork, then. What could go wrong?

No help from his friends: Pras won't endorse Wyclef

Well, that's going to make a Fugees reunion even more awkward than it would be normally. If they can get past someone asking Lauryn how the solo career is going, Pras endorsing Wyclef Jean's opponent for Haitian president, Michel "Sweet Micky" Martelly:

The Haitian-born musician says he will not back Jean because he lacks a definitive plan to bring the island nation into the 21st century.

"You've got 1.2 million people living in tent city right now. What are the plans to get these people out," Pras said of the survivors of the Jan. 12 earthquake.

"Also" he continued, "he allowed himself to be mixed up in that cover version of No Woman, No Cry. Who'd take seriously the opinion of someone who did that... oh, hang on..."

If one of Runrig can enter politics, why not Wyclef Jean?

Flags currently being run up various masts as Wyclef Jean tests the waters for a possible Haitian presidential bid:

In a statement, the family said, "Wyclef's commitment to his homeland and its youth is boundless, and he will remain its greatest supporter regardless of whether he is part of the government moving forward ... If and when a decision is made, media will be alerted immediately."

Immediately? Jesus, you'd have thought if you were making a big decision like that you'd at least want to have a cup of coffee and a biscuit to just get used to the idea before announcing it to the media. Just in case.

Wyclef Jean counters claims. Sort of.

Wyclef Jean has broken into his work in Haiti to talk about the claims that Yele Haiti might be murky round the edges:



It's heartfelt but doesn't go anywhere near explaining why Yele Haiti spent a quarter of a million dollars buying advertising airtime on a TV station in Haiti in which Jean has a controlling interest in.

XXL magazine has run a statement from the charity's president Hugh Locke explaining why there aren't full tax records:

“Yele Haiti, originally called the Wyclef Jean Foundation, filed a tax return in 2000 and then suspended activities until 2005 and so was not required by law to file a tax return until it resumed operation,” Locke explained.

That seems fair enough. Locke also expresses disappointment that the organisation is having to divert resources at this time of emergency to deal with the allegation - although if that is a sum greater or lesser than the amount being redirected to hire space in a studio building co-owned by Jean isn't clear.

I don't think anyone doubts Jean's commitment to doing the right thing for Haiti, and there are plenty of NGOs who are happy to work with Yele Haiti to get aid where it's needed. That should be good enough, for now. But perhaps - in a few months, when things are calmer - Jean might want to think about reorganising Yele Haiti's affairs in a way which doesn't require him to keep using the charity's money to purchase services from his for-profit companies. Just to keep things out of the murk.

Wyclef Jean: Haiti donations might have been hasty

You can't deny Wyclef Jean's good intentions - he's down in Haiti right now, helping the relief effort.

Slightly less laudable, though, is his pushing of his Yele Haiti charity. It's been shady in the past, explains The Smoking Gun, and Gawker reports that it's not the best placed organisation to be picking up donations right now:

[L]arge first-responders usually have the resources to move money quickly to where it's needed, either by virtue of prepositioned disaster fund, large pools of money that they can shift among accounts as circumstances warrant, or access to a bridge loan to get money flowing. Yele Haiti, which as of 2007 had no paid staffers and currently, according to the source, has one employee who works out of the kitchen in Jean's Manhattan recording studio, has no such capacity. So it can spend whatever money it has on hand—at the end of 2007, it had roughly $500,000 in cash and liabilities of more than $900,000—but after that it has to wait for any donations made over the last three days to actually clear and show up in its bank account. And again, because it is a small player and uses a small firm to process its online donations, the source says, that process can take "two weeks to a month."

It might not be such a major problem - after all, there will still be needs for reconstruction in Haiti in a month - was Jean not pitching Yele Haiti as part of the instant relief effort. According to MTV, Jean has managed to bark up a million dollars from his campaigning - that's a million dollars that the larger groups could be using right now; a million dollars redirected to the wrong place at the wrong time.

Oh, and there's more:

Yele Haiti is will be one of the beneficiaries of George Clooney's "Hope for Haiti" telethon to be broadcast next week, and "there's no reason for that," the source says.

Yele Haiti claim that their connections in Haiti make them better-placed to distribute aid in a hurry - which isn't implausible - and say that they have achieved success in the 2004 Tropical Storm and 2008 food crises.

They even try to explain away the dubious financial organisation, including this:

Another strange Yele Haiti expense—$100,000 to Platinum Sound in 2006 as a performance fee for Jean playing a fundraiser in Monte Carlo—included payments for musicians and production costs, Locke says. Only $25,000 or so, he says, accounted for Jean's fee.

Ah, right. So Jean only pocketed twenty-five grand for playing for his own charity; not four times that amount. That's... alright... then.

Wyclef Jean was overawed by Michael Jackson

I think the subtext here is that we're meant to read the words "even I, the mighty Wyclef Jean, out the Fugees and so on, felt this way" at the start of every sentence:

"When I knew he was coming, I went to the bathroom, put some water on my face and I was rehearsing how I would be talking to Mike," he said. "When I was in the presence of Michael Jackson, I go to shake his hand — and my whole voice box goes out. This is the kind of effect that this man had on me!"

That must have been an awkward meeting - one man unable to get his voicebox to work, the other having trouble keeping his nose in place.

Fugees split. Again.

The promise of "new Fugees" stuff has run out of steam trying to get over Lauryn Hill, reports Pras:

"Me and [Wyclef], we are on the same page, but Lauryn is in her zone and I'm fed-up with that shit.

"Here she is blessed with a gift with the opportunity to rock and give and she's running on some bullshit? I'm a fan of Lauryn's, but I can't respect that."

Of course, it's actually quite a while since Lauryn Hill was converted to run purely on bullshit. It's eco-friendly but terrible if you're around while she's filling up.

Your music sounds black but your guitarist is white - can you fill me in?

The story about Craig David being told to dump his white friend and guitarist because it'd confuse his position in the US market looks set to join the Herbie Hancock video story as one of the standard tales of the nasty racist undertow of the music industry. Hats off to Mr D for making a stink about the 'suggestion' rather than just accepting the advice and ploughing on.

What we find odd, though, is this piece by Wilber Wilberforce (a name we're adding to a list headed by Magnus Magnusson and Edward Woodward), the bloke in charge programmes of 1xtra. At first, he seems to want to defend the instruction to David:

" In America though, the rules are different and if Craig wants to succeed over there he will have to play by them. [...] In England it might be seen as an issue of race, but as far as the Americans were concerned it's business. In fact, they probably thought they were being helpful when they suggested that Craig get rid of Fraser. They'll have said to him: "Do you realise that people will ask what kind of act you are? Are you pop? Are you urban? You need to make a decision."

Right, so it's not "race", then, it's business. So, erm, that's alright then, is it? So, presumably if a sandwich bar in Alabama decided to was going to market itself exclusively to a white audience, and as such instituted a policy whereby it wouldn't hire black staff, as that would confuse its clientèle, Mr. Wilberforce would be relaxed with that?

Or if he went for a job with a US news station and was told "sorry, we're aiming for a clearly defined market and your face doesn't fit", he'd accept that that was business rather than racism?

He then shoots himself in his foot about two or three times by trying to suggest there's the same sort of thing happening in the UK, only it's on music snobbery lines rather than race lines. Firstly, from a man who's just stated

"In the US, though, the whole system is far more refined. Be it country and western, rock, pop, or rap every act has its proper place and has to stay there"

to then complain that in the UK

"an "underground" artist always has to hit a fine balance to make sure they don't go "pop" and lose their audience, just as pop stars run the risk of losing their original audience if they try to get street cred"

makes no sense - but then, the claims that Americans can't have black and white artists in the same act makes no sense in article that then goes on to observe that in the US

"In America, though, rap artists record with big names all the time (the latest Tom Jones album has been produced by Wyclef)."

So, Wyclef can record with Tom Jones - who, fair enough, is more orange than white, but still Welsh - and still be urban, but Craig David can't have a white guitarist and be urban? Sorry, Wilber, this sounds like trying to explain away racism to me. It probably isn't the worst example of racism in the industry, and, sure, its a twist for a white guy to be the victim, but let's not try and find a way of understanding it. Let's just admit it stinks, shall we?