Wyclef Jean

Biography

Nelust Wyclef Jean, born in Croix-des-Bouquets, Haiti, on October 17th, 1972, was the son of a minister. He lived in Haiti until he was 9 years old, when his family moved to the Marlborough Projects in Brooklyn, New York.

"I'm all about the projects," Jean has said of his youth. "I was raised with this training from the church and the streets and the parks, and it's what developed me as a person and as an artist."

By the time he entered high school, Jean had moved to New Jersey and taken up music -- his mother bought him his first guitar. Jean studied jazz in high school and, in 1987, he formed a group with his cousin Prakazrel Michel (aka Pras) and Michel's high school classmate, Lauryn Hill.

Initially, they called themselves the Tranzlator Crew, but by the time they signed with Ruffhouse Records in 1993, they were the Fugees, their name taken from the slang for refugees. The Fugees released Blunted on Reality in 1994, but it attracted little attention.