Wyclef Jean Breaks Down His Ambitious 7-Album 'Quantum Leap' Project and Musical Evolution

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At an exclusive evening celebrating Quantum Leap at The Paley Museum in New York City, musical icon Wyclef Jean shared new details about his ambitious seven-album project and the inspiration behind what he calls a new creative chapter. The Grammy-winning artist said the project is about both giving back to longtime fans and connecting with a younger generation through music. 'Evolutions are important,' Wyclef explained, 'It's cool to evolve.' The artist said the idea for Quantum Leap began nearly six years ago after a burst of creativity sent him traveling from New York to Nashville, Jamaica, Brazil, France, and New Orleans to develop the music. The multi-album project will span several genres and feature collaborations with artists including Lil Wayne, Andra Day, G Herbo, Melissa Etheridge, Drake White, and conversations with Jennifer Hudson for the soulful R&B-inspired material. Reflecting on his career from Fugees to today, Wyclef said he has always believed artists should never be confined creatively. 'I can't be put in a box,' he said. 'Technology...it breaks the barriers even more now...It's a good time to be alive.'

Transcript

00:00What's up, everybody?

00:01This is Wyclef Jean, and you're watching Life Minute TV.

00:04Get into it.

00:12After working for 30 years and literally genre bending, every genre you could think of, from

00:20country to jazz to gospel to hip hop, it was sort of like, this is my way of ... Actually,

00:27I'm giving back to my fans, and I'm bridging a new fan, right?

00:32So my daughter's like 21, when she's listening to Quantum Leap, she's really digging it.

00:41It gives me a chance to reinvent myself to an entire new generation, and a generation

00:47that came up with me with the boom bap and all of that.

00:50The albums are going to be amazing.

00:52The first one, which is coming out called Clef Notes, no pun intended.

00:55You know, we're focused on a lot of like what saved my life, which was hip hop, you know?

01:00Very excited about Rap City, Andra Day, Lil Wayne on the album, G Herbo, you know, just

01:07to name a few.

01:07So country album's going to be crazy.

01:10Melitza Everich, yeah, I did say it, Melitza Everich.

01:14You already know my man Drake White, Timothy Chan, so that's going to be real cool.

01:19The R&B album, so soulful.

01:22I already spoke to Jennifer Hudson.

01:25I'm just, you see, I can't even talk about what this album's going to be.

01:28But I feel like it's going to be, you know, as a church boy for me, like going in the

01:32studio

01:33with all these amazing vocalists and singers and writers is going to be super amazing.

01:37The album, you know, creativity has to come.

01:39It's like, you know, like an author could sit for 10 years and then like, you know, you're

01:45looking for that tick, like, you know what I mean?

01:46And the tick could either come or don't come.

01:49And the tick hit me like six years ago.

01:51And once the tick hit me, I went from New York to Nashville, to Jamaica, to Brazil, to

01:59France, New Orleans.

02:01And then here we are literally with seven albums, six years later.

02:07I can't be put in a box.

02:08I always used to use that word and I would say a box would limit us, you know?

02:13And I think that what technology has done was it breaks the barrier even more now.

02:19It shows you like what I was saying 30 years ago.

02:21That's where we are today.

02:23So I look forward to seeing how the new generation produce music, how they write books.

02:30How movies are being produced.

02:33Everyone in different countries expressing their own stories.

02:37I'm excited about all that.

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