Wyclef Jean Drops New Mixtape for the Culture: ‘Hip-Hop Is Embedded in My Soul’

Three months after dropping Carnival III: The Fall and Rise of a Refugee, Wyclef Jean is back with a new mixtape called Wyclef Inspired By, which he says is for the culture.

The collection features the veteran Refugee All-Star member flipping songs by your favorite artists. For example, ‘Clef flips Kendrick Lamar’s “DNA” into a guitar-charging anthem and turns Drake’s dancehall-inspired tune “Controlla” into a rock ballad.

On “Letter to the Fugees,” Wyclef sends a missive to ex-Fugees members Pras and Lauryn Hill urging them to put their differences aside and think about recording a possible sequel to their classic 1996 album, The Score.

In an interview with Billboard, Wyclef said that his mixtape is his introduction to rap’s new generation. He also wanted to show off his musicality over today’s trap music-inspired production.

“So for me, it’s a beautiful era because you get to put albums out and at the same time, when you want to talk to the culture, you put the mixtape out,” he says of the project. “You know, I just feel like with all the kids talking about Wyclef Jean and different things, I was like, ‘What would happen if I’m from 1997 and I took everything that inspired me from 2017 and wanted to flip?'”

“At the end of the day, when you have a dude that plays like 15 instruments and actually can write for an entire orchestra, right, people keep forgetting that’s the genesis of my DNA,” he continued. “I was an extra for Eric B and Rakim. I was barely 18-years-old. [‘Don’t Sweat the Technique’] was my first music video ever.”

“The hip-hop is embedded in my soul, you know what I mean?” he added. “So when I hear like the new kids, it’s not a matter of pride, because at the end of the day, the culture is the culture. [The new kids] don’t see me often because I’m an alien.”

Check out Wyclef’s new mixtape above and you can download the entire project at Datpiff.com.

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