Wyclef Jean

Wyclef Jean of the Fugees

Quote
"A ghetto is a ghetto. . . . watch the streets turn magnetic, Tawana Brawley's rape is alleged. . . . Last Days. . . . the day came I saw him on the train; he pulled his gun and aimed and started firing like the son of Cain; I saw civilians running for their life, like the devil on Judgement Night, running from Christ. . . . being shot by Ferguson the vigilante. . . . Ferguson is at court and he's his own lawyer. . . . this is definitely the Last Days. . . . Pharaoh, let my people go";
"Year of the Dragon"; Wyclef Jean, The Carnival, 1997, Sony Music Entertainment, Columbia Records, Sony.

Article
      On his 1997 solo album, Wyclef Jean intersperses his rap tracks with tracks that are skits and give the progression of a mock trial in which Wyclef Jean has been accused, in the first such track, of being a "revolutionary" and of "inciting many riots." Referring to his musical associates and listeners as "soldiers," he makes double-meanings which are typical of rap when he threatens the following: "close the bar down because we are coming to rob you." ("Intro/Court/Clef/Intro--Skit/Interlude.") Armageddon is referred to on some tracks. ("Apocalypse" and "Year of the Dragon.") He relays an incident in which he says that he was pulled over by a cop, calling the incident "discrimination." He tells the officer that he was not the one who robbed the gas station because he was at the GRAMMY Awards ceremony. ("Apocalypse.") What he refers to as "The Shining" cannot be stopped, he says, and he asks listeners if they are "ready for the revolution this year." ("Anything Can Happen.")

      Lauryn Hill says that the streets became "magnetic" when Tawana Brawley's rape was "alleged." Wyclef calls Colin Ferguson "the vigilante." (Colin A. Ferguson killed 5 people and wounded 18 during a shooting rampage on a Long Island train in 1993. His motives were steeped in racism, and the note written by him targeted whites, "Uncle Tom Negroes, Chinese racists, rich black attorneys and so-called civil rights leaders." After the incident, the police said that only whites and Asians were struck by bullets and that it was unclear if blacks were on the railroad car.) Wyclef says that Ferguson, or the equivalent, would be "like the son of Cain [Enoch]" when he shoots civilians. It is significant the way in which Wyclef compares the white and Asian victims of Ferguson's hatred to the wicked of the Bible, and he does so as follows: "civilians running for their life, like the devil on Judgement Night, running from Christ." (Jude 14, which comes just before Revelation, of the Holy Bible--New International Version--states that Enoch prophesied that "the Lord is coming with thousands upon thousands of his holy ones to judge everyone, and to convict all the ungodly of all the ungodly acts they have done in the ungodly way.") Wyclef says that the very fact that Ferguson was in court defending himself is proof that "the Last Days" have arrived. A background voice says that the "Jewish calendar has already arrived at year 2000." Without saying the word "whites" explicitly, Lauryn Hill refers to them by saying that "the serpent played tricks" to make people think that they were succeeding when really they would eventually "lose the championship." "The serpent" is responsible for a "chick" becoming "strung out" on drugs, and the "chick" reminisces over the Wu-Tang Clan. The rappers place "Moses" into current times, and they say that AIDS is the plague. Blacks are warned to watch their backs, and the rappers make a demand which places another Biblical character into modern times: "Pharaoh, let my people go." In the chorus Lauryn Hill sends out the following paranoia: "in the year of the dragon lots of men disappear." Wyclef tells listeners to "watch out for the black van," and he says that "kids are disappearing." ("Year of the Dragon.")

      In the liner notes, Wyclef Jean gives "Special Shout-Outs" to Queen Latifah, Busta Rhymes, Lost Boyz, Sean "Puffy" Combs, Nas, Mobb Deep, Boyz II Men, Heavy D, Redman, Wu-Tang Clan, Method Man, Jay Z, Def Jam, Muhammad Ali, Run DMC, The Source magazine, Rolling Stone, Vibe, Spin, Interview, Black Entertainment Television, The Box, MTV, Dr Dre, Naughty by Nature, Buju Banton, Cypress Hill, George Clinton, Jermaine Dupri, and Snoop Doggy Dog. Wyclef Jean sends out "Rest in Peace" to The Notorious BIG and Tupac Shakur.

      Wyclef Jean produced a 1998 single by Sunz of Man, a black rap group having members who say that the "real Jews are black" and whose lyrics call for the killing of whites.

References
The Carnival, Wyclef Jean, 1997, Sony Music Entertainment, Columbia Records, Sony.

The whites and the Asian murdered by Colin Ferguson were James Gorycki, Dennis McCarthy, Theresa Magtoto, Richard Nettleton, and Mikyung Kim. The story was covered in the New York Times everyday between 12-8-93 and 12-14-93. It was covered in the Los Angeles Times on 12-9-93.

Posted at http://home.att.net/~phosphor on June 30, 1999.

The above article is not a complete summary of Wyclef Jean's connections to violently racist music, and some interested readers may want to research and expose more of it.

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