MR. KOJO NNAMDIFrom WAMU 88.5 at American University in Washington, welcome to "The Kojo Nnamdi Show," connecting your neighborhood with the world. Maybe he first came to your attention as a member of the now legendary hip-hop trio The Fugees, as a solo artist or as a producer teaming with the likes of Sakura and Whitney Houston. Or maybe it was through the work of his charitable foundation, status as favorite son and later as a presidential candidate in his native Haiti.

MR. KOJO NNAMDIWhenever you first heard of him, odds are good that you have heard of him, Wyclef Jean's story is at its core an immigrant story. Here to talk about his roots and what the future may hold is Wyclef Jean. He's an award-winning musician, actor and producer. He's also the author of a new memoir "Purpose: An Immigrant's Story" written with Anthony Bozza. Wyclef Jean, pleased to meet you.

MR. WYCLEF JEANPlease to meet you too, sir.

NNAMDIGlad you could join us. If you have questions or comments for Wyclef Jean you can call us at 800-433-8850. Now is your chance. You can also send email to kojo@wamu.org. Send a Tweet at kojoshow or simply go to our website kojoshow.org and join the conversation there. Let's start in Haiti. Your parents moved to the U.S. leaving you and your brother Sam in the care of an aunt and uncle when you were very young. So young in fact that you did not believe your aunt when she said gifts came from your parents. You thought instead that they were from Santa Clause.

NNAMDIWhat are your strongest memories of Haiti before you left at the age of nine and what was the moment you first saw your parents in the flesh that you could remember like?

JEANThe -- I want to thank you first for having me here and thank you for our listeners for tuning in. My story just basically starts off in a hut. I always explain it like no electricity, candles. At times me and my brother, we'd see a plane in the air and we thought they were giant birds and tried to shoot them down with slingshots. My dad left me when I was one. He came to America. He had a chance to get a work visa as a Nazarene preacher, so he came to America to preach the Gospel.

JEANAnd after six months his visa ran out and he went underground and decided that he would try to bring my mother to America. And at the time with the laws if you had kids in these United States of America you automatically -- the kids became citizens. This is what allowed them to be able to come back to Haiti in this small village. In the book I described that me and my brother at times we were so poor that we ate dirt. It was red dirt.

JEANTo a lot of people though from the Caribbean and the West Indies the start of the village story will be something that they could relate to. It won't be as foreign as it will be to everybody else, especially when we get into the fact of the West Indian beatings and the fact that the way that we were raised...

NNAMDII can testify.

JEAN...the way we were raised, you know, is different than the kids now. It's sort of like, you know, the beating that come from your papa, then your mama beat you, your grandma beat you. But basically the first time I saw my parents was -- for the first time they brought us to an airport. We didn't know what an airport was. And we saw airplanes now and we didn't know what airplanes were. Me and my brother said, this is the giant bird, the iron bird that came to get us to bring us back to America. And they got off the plane and they came and greeted us.

NNAMDIBeatings also from neighbors down the street.

JEANBeatings from all over.

NNAMDIYour father wanted to get his family out of Haiti because -- Baby Doc Jean-Claude Duvalier, the son of Francois or Papa Doc Duvalier, Baby Doc was coming into power. Even as a child you were aware of the effects of his regime. How did you see that play out even in your classrooms and within your own family?

JEANWell, I mean, my family, you had situations where it's sort of like the macoutes were like. If you didn't join a macoute -- like somebody in your family had be a macoute at the time. 'Cause if you didn't have a macoute in the family and anything happened, nine times out of ten you was not coming back. Under that kind of dictatorship my parents were very vocal. I have a uncle by the name of Ray Joseph who was the ambassador...

NNAMDI...here in Washington.

JEANYes and he was most vocal and part of the team that helped take Baby Doc out at that time. So I would say from a very young age -- I mean the political undertone is always in the household.

NNAMDIIn case you're just joining us we're talking with Wyclef Jean. He is an award-winning musician, actor and producer and the author of a new memoir "Purpose: An Immigrant's Story." And you can join the conversation by calling us at 800-433-8850. If you happen to be of Haitian descent what was your experience or that of your fore bearers in coming to the U.S., 800-433-8850?

NNAMDIImmigration reform is a hot -- oh, by the way he mentioned macoute. That would be the notorious Tonton Macoute who during the regimes of the Duvaliers terrorized much of the civilian population of Haiti. Immigration reform is a hot topic in this election year. What do you think would've happened to your family if they were trying to immigrate to the U.S. today?

JEANWell, I think the policies and the laws back then was a little more lenient to us immigrants than today. I think through the course of history what has happened all the way leading up to 9/11 has -- it has -- you know, the laws have gotten stronger. If back then the laws that existed now existed back then and I probably would've never made it to these United States of America but clearly want to define that change of events changes situations.

JEANSo the immigration laws that was back then could not be the same immigration laws that are now because it's through all of the events that we've had through policy and legislations, things are going to get changed. So if we're talking about what happened -- what would've happened if the same laws we have today existed back then Wyclef Jean would probably still be in that village.

NNAMDI...in Haiti.

JEANYes.

NNAMDIAs a child living in that village, you admit that you were a little bit of a bully. But when you moved to the U.S. you became a target because of where you came from. Something, again, I'm familiar with. How did you maintain both your self confidence and your allegiance to your home country in the face of the kind of outright discrimination that you experienced?

JEANWell, I think for me, you know, the crazy thing is you get to the states and coming from where we come from the islands you have that feeling that I'm okay now. This is great, you know. And at the time, I really didn't understand when I went to school because one time, like, in the school I went to, like, we all were black and black meaning, like, we were very dark skinned, you know. It was very important. So I assumed everything was the same thing, you know, everything...

NNAMDIEverything's cool now.

JEANWe all brothers. But they'd say, no, no. There's two different kind of blacks. We just want to get this straight with you, man. All right. We from America type black, you understand? You, you from the coconut, the banana-type black, so we don't mix, you understand? So that's how it started and I was like, yo, what is this. And then I couldn't speak English. A lot of us couldn't speak English. We was put in what's called bilingual class, ESL classes. And we're in like the roughest project at the time, Marlboro Projects. So automatically you have to find out how you're going to adapt, you know. So hip-hop was the start of acceptance for me, you know.

NNAMDIIs it frustrating to you to live in a country where most people probably couldn't find Haiti on a map and many would lump your native country's issues in with those of Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Guyana for that matter?

JEANAt the time I was too young to even understand why such prejudism (sic) -- I just thought we all was one, you know. At the time I was just completely confused.

NNAMDIBut then along came hip-hop and music to save you. Fans might be a little bit surprised to learn that the Muppets played a pivotal role in fostering your musical talents. Can you please explain that?

JEANWell, I mean, you know, growing up in such community at times with Caribbean parents, there were one TV. Purposely the TV -- there wouldn't be more than one TV. The TV's completely monitored and the TV's controlled dominantly by the father of the household, you know. And it would go as follows, "The Muppet Show" would probably come on like 8:00 or 9:00 so we was definitely, you know, they would monitor what we had to watch so...

NNAMDIYou're sounding like my sons now. They call me a control freak with the TV, but go ahead, please.

JEANMy dad, you know, was like, okay, "The Muppet Show," you know, y'all can watch Kermit, Miss Piggy. And I would say, you know, through the characters -- of course even like having kids today and watching how my kids interact with different cartoon characters and how they learn how to go to the bathroom, how they learn to eat with forks and knives. I can fully understand now why my dad had me watch -- had us watching "The Muppet Show," you know.

NNAMDIAnd bought you some "Muppet Show" instruments to play with.

JEANYeah, the first instruments we got were definitely "The Muppet Show" drums. And my dad actually was a very deep guy because what he was doing with those instruments was he was preparing us to be the church band. So it was deep when I look back at it. We watched "The Muppet Show," learning English, then he bought us the Muppet instruments. You know what I mean? So he clearly had, you know, some Muppet Gospel band thing he was trying to create at the time he was a preacher.

NNAMDIWell, it turned into reality. You did become the church band. But your first performance as a rapper was given under the name Nelly Nell at a Catholic school talent show. What drew you to hip-hop early on and does that appeal still hold for you now decades later?

JEANWell, (unintelligible) Wyclef Jean, of course, my name and one of my friends Rob G was like, look man, the name Nell is just not going to cut it in the rap world, man. We got to swag you up. Is that cool? I'd say, no man, let's just go MC Nell. He's like, no man. We gotta go by Nelly Nell. So gave me that name and then we started rapping. And I would say -- a lot of people that saw the movie, like, Eminem "Eight Miles," this was us when there was no TV. So this is how hip-hop started for us.

JEANSo we would have to rap, have to go battle different crews, exchange literature. And then hip-hop as not about rapping. This is where people get it mixed up. See, hip-hop was more like a culture and the way that I explain it is you have more gangs in these communities now because you have a loss of hip-hop mentors. And what that mean was hip-hop was our gang. Like so if somebody was tough and they was rough they was part of hip-hop. So you wanted to be down with that crew. And what were they doing? They were doing music. They were dancing. They were doing graffiti.

JEANSo the neighborhood at times -- not that somebody wouldn't get killed but hip-hop a lot of time prevented -- so hip-hop became our police in the neighborhood. So of course it's still relevant to me today because when you're watching all of the TV shows looking back at it now, even my daughter that's seven years old, she's watching Nickelodeon. And half of those shows are kids that are trying to make it, they're rapping, they're singing, they're dancing. So definitely hip-hop has transformed into a new form, but it's still part of me today.

NNAMDIWyclef Jean, he's our guest. He's an award-winning musician, actor and producer. He's also the author. His new memoir is called "Purpose: An Immigrant's Story" written with Anthony Bozza. Going to the telephones now we will start with Zach in Bethesda, Md. Zach, you're on the air. Go ahead, please.

ZACHHey, how are you guys doing? Thanks for having me.

NNAMDIYou're welcome.

ZACHKojo, I love the show. I listen to it almost every day so appreciate everything you do.

NNAMDIThanks.

JEANAnd, Wyclef, same goes for your music. It's really been inspiring and love all the good work you do.

JEANThank you, sir.

ZACHAnyway my question was, I play music and I like to get involved in as many sort of outside activities as I can involved with music like charity events, at our Yoga Studio, different things like that. And I was just wondering if you got involved, you know -- either through the church or through your own ways if you got involved in charity work or work giving back to the community before your music career took off, or if that was sort of the catalyst, you being able to give back both in Haiti and in America? And I'll take my answer off the air. Thank you.

NNAMDIHey, Zach, thank you for your call.

JEANThank you. Well, the idea of charity for me naturally started off in the Nazarene Church. As a young kid this is what my parents instilled in us. So I always remember I was very young being like 12, 13, 14 and every month my dad said, we're going to do an offering for Haiti. We're going to pray for Haiti. And I remember my mama getting on a plane, like she would say, okay whatever people from the church don't want let's box it up. And she would put everything in a box and she would take it to Haiti.

JEANSo any form of charitable work that I do I think it's something that I get from my parents. So when I started to -- when I started doing the same work that my parents did and I just instill the same thing in my daughter. And I always go back to my daughter, that's my foundation. So when I started going back to Haiti to the roughest areas like ghosts -- there's a document called The Ghost of Cite Soleil. Cite Soleil is one of the roughest areas and I'd bring my daughter there and she was like two at the time -- three, four years old passing gifts out.

JEANAnd later I had a show for Nickelodeon where I would be performing with Dora. My daughter assumed that I was the coolest guy at the time. So I was like, you know what? You should play drums for me and play, like, Djembe drums for me, you know, Djembe. And she was like, okay. But she was like, you gotta pay me. And I was like, what you mean, pay you? She says, well, we gotta do a contract. And I'm like, well, what you gonna do with the money? She was like, well, I need the money 'cause I gotta buy toys and I have to go to Cite Soleil and give these toys out.

JEANSo then I smiled because the same thing I instilled in her now she's thinking like that at that young age and that's how my parents have me thinking.

NNAMDIWhen you decided to pursue a career in hip-hop your father was not pleased. Now that you have some distance from the riff that caused and have a daughter of your own, can you understand where he was coming from?

JEANWell, I understand where he was coming from before I had my daughter because, you know, I've -- the industry I'm in is a very vicious one and I didn't understand. Sometimes I would be on tour -- he would never get involved, but he'd be like, here, take this book. It's Bill Graham. Read it, you know. So I fully understand before having a child. If I was to encourage my child to do -- I encourage her to do everything and anything, but the music industry, the entertainment world, the Hollywood world is -- it's very vicious.

JEANYou know, when they say the strongest survive, you know, you gotta be beyond strong to survive.

NNAMDIWell, apparently, Wyclef Jean is beyond strong because he sits here in front of me. He is surviving. He's an award-winning musician, actor and producer. We're going to take a short break. When we come back we will continue this conversation with him about his new memoir "Purpose: An Immigrant's Story." 800-433-8850 is the number to call. Have you visited Haiti? What stood out most to you about the culture, 800-433-8850? I'm Kojo Nnamdi.

NNAMDIWe're talking with Wyclef Jean. He has a new memoir out. It is called "Purpose: An Immigrant's Story." Wyclef Jean is an award-winning musician, actor and producer. We're taking your calls at 800-433-8850. "The Score" the Fugees second album consistently makes critics picks for best and most influential lists. Going in to record that in a basement in East Orange, New Jersey did you have any idea, did you know at that time that you had something as special as what you ended up with?

JEANWell, the way that I ended up in my uncle's basement is my father basically kicked me out of the house. He said, you can't serve two masters. It's either God or the devil. I said, well, is there anybody in the middle I could serve for you then? And my uncle took me in. He was like, look, the kid's a good kid. All he wants to do is his music. And my uncle gave me his basement, but he was in a rough area.

JEANThe Booga Basement was basically we had the garage in the back, the pit bull was -- behind that, we had the crack house, where the fiends, you could always hear them smoking their crack. I left the basement open because I wanted it to be open for the community. And at a very teenage age doing that was quite daring.

JEANI called the group Refugees, not Fugees. And people said, y'all can't use Refugees 'cause there's a rock band called Refugees at the time. And I'm like, how's a rock band gonna be called Refugees? We the Refugees. And there was like, y'all better shorten the name or y'all get sued. And we came up with Fugees. The reason I came up with the Booga Basement is because when we was younger, like, picking boogers is nasty so we was like we're gonna call it the Booga because the bass that's coming out the basement is so nasty.

NNAMDIIs nasty.

JEANSo that's how we came about with that. And of course, you're young, you're trying things, you feel good. And the way that I explain you the story, you could see, man, it's about the community. You had two crews. We were the Refugees and you had the other clique on the other side of town was called the Outsidaz'. Acon was part of the Refugees at the time. If you go back and people listen to Fu-Gee-La remakes the last person on Fu-Gee-La remakes is Acon. Outsidaz' was the other battle crew where M&M, when he came to New Jersey that was the crew that he was with.

JEANSo you had two crews. You had the Fugees on one side and then you had the Outsidaz' on the other. So that's just to give you an intel of how the neighborhood was at the time, you know.

NNAMDIBut you knew you had something special going in.

JEANWell, you don't know -- see, 'cause people listen -- I don't want -- 'cause there are musicians listening right now. And the thing that you know is when you are doing this music or when you are doing music you just feel good in your heart. And you have this thing that drives you, like this feels so good that I want the world to hear it. But at the time you don't have a clue of what's about to happen. You're just doing it, you know, 'cause you feel it.

NNAMDIOn your first solo album "The Carnival" people heard a reinterpretation of songs like "Staying Alive" by the BeeGees, the old Cuban standard "Guantanamera." And they also heard this "Sang Fezi."

NNAMDIWas it important to you to rap in Creole when you embarked on your solo career?

JEANMost important. The solo career would be where it was important to me because now I had to separate myself from the super stars that we were, the 17 million. And after you sell so many albums, you know, this is where it could be the start of the death of you 'cause from so many albums now you're only going to peak down.

JEANSo me, clearly, I was a fan of Quincy Jones and what I was doing is there was so much attention on the score and the sonics of the score when we did it, putting so much time into it sounding a certain way that my first solo project, I wanted it to be multicultural. And I wanted it to be in four languages. So when I went and I told the label this they thought I was smoking crack, you know, 'cause it didn't exist back then.

JEANI remember recording it and people saying, man, you just sold like 17 million copies, you got a crazy buzz. You wanna put this kinda music on your thing? You're not even -- you know, you wanna turn your people off, the people that's in mid America, you wanna turn -- I was like, man listen, people in mid America wanna hear some culture, man.

NNAMDII wanna turn them on. I got something to turn them on to. And so he did. 800-433-8850 is the number to call. We're going to go to the phones now. Here is Andrew in Washington, D.C. Andrew, you're on the air. Go ahead, please. Andrew is talking to somebody else. Andrew, I'm going to put you back on hold so Marjory will have the opportunity to speak with Wyclef Jean. Marjory, your turn.

MARJORYHello. I'm calling from Northern Virginia and I just had a question for Wyclef that I've heard one of your albums and you mentioned, you know, going into office and, you know, the next week or the next day you're already targeted and things like that. And just going into politics and everything how would you go about it? What are your concerns? What do you think you're able to do?

NNAMDIHow much time do you have?

MARJORYI'm sorry.

NNAMDIWe have limited time, but I'll allow him to talk about what his concerns are and how he seems himself in the Haitian political environment.

JEANWell, I think to your question the song you were talking about was the song I performed on Dave Chappelle -- first with Dave Chappelle. I said if I was president, I'd get elected on Friday, assassinated on Saturday, buried on Sunday. They go back to work on Monday if I was president. Keep in mind this is before I ran for president. So once I started running for president, I was like, man maybe I should go back and remix this song. I don't like the lyrics.

JEANBasically for me, I think that running for president of my country where I came from or somebody running for prime minister of Jamaica, I think when you look at it you have to look -- if you see Haiti you have to see Cuba, you have to see Venezuela, you have to see Guyana, you got to see Jamaica, Trinidad and understand what I call policy changing. Meaning those little island that you see, there's a reason why they was under slavery. And there's a reason why they're still controlled by the powers to be.

JEANSo I think the first thing for me in running for office would've been how do we get stronger policies so that from agriculture that we're creating agribanks where the Caribbean people are actually participating within the agribank. Coming up with more education structure where we actually strengthen the education.

JEANAs I see with Jamaica, you know, now doing so much investment in sports, I would like to see, you know, policy like that for Haiti where there's more money, you know, going into some of the athletes coming into our country. these are just some of the things I could see.

NNAMDIMarjory, thank you very much for your call. We took this show to Haiti in November of 2010 and one of the things that we noticed is that the country was abuzz with the possibility of a President Wyclef. But your run was ended under a residency requirement. I've heard people say Wyclef gave up without putting up enough of a fight. Do you think you gave it all you could? Because I've heard -- and I know this happened with your uncle too. He was thrown off of the ballot because of the same residency requirement.

NNAMDIBut I've heard people from Haiti who live here say, we contribute so much to the Haitian economy that it's unfair that there is this resident requirement that keeps us from participating actively in the political situation there.

JEANWell, the first thing I want to tell those people is if at the time I had put my finger up, you know, I would've had 3 to 4 million kids rise up and they probably would've got the palace. And I could've took the palace. I had enough will and I had enough backing and I had enough people with me. But what would that have done? It would've put me in a place, in a situation where our country has -- all it has been going through is so much bloodshed. And when one person gets out off of technicality, they turn around and start to bully. We've seen that. I didn't want to be in any part of that.

JEANSo my fighting has to be the fighting which is a revolution. But a real revolution now can't be a revolution of arms for Haiti. We've tried that. It has not worked. The -- I want to tell everyone who's listening, the idea of the residency and the technicality, there's parts of that you have to understand. Before this situation I was already an ambassador for example. My uncle Ray Joseph, he was an ambassador.

JEANAs an ambassador I was an ambassador at large. My uncle Ray Joseph was the ambassador to...

NNAMDI...to Washington.

JEAN...to Washington. There's no way and there's no law in Haitian history within the constitution that say as an ambassador, as a diplomat you physically have to be in the country for five years. This do not exist. This is why they give you these passports so you can represent your country outside. Clearly they took my uncle out of the race because once they took me they turned around and said, well you took him out. He's gonna turn around and support his uncle. And that's why he got taken out of the race.

JEANBut the fight that we want to fight, over $2.5 billion go to Haiti coming from America through remittance and everything. So if you the Diaspora, you the Haitian American contributing this kind of money, there has to be a point where you say, hold on, hold on here, you know. I'm not gonna be making these contribution unless laws and policies are getting changed. I wanna fight for the Dual Citizenship Act, which right now our president currently Michel Martelly is working on getting that passed.

NNAMDIThe Dual Citizenship Act that would allow you to participate in politics in your native Haiti. When we asked our fixer -- we really had more than one in Haiti -- if Wyclef Jean were to run for president, among all of the other candidates whose faces we were seeing looking out at us from posters everyplace, how would he do? And they all said, oh, he'd win, of course. That's why they don't want to let him run. Was that the sentiment that you also felt, that you could, if you were included, win and win easily?

JEANWell, I knew that I wouldn't win easily because I couldn't be that naïve. In looking back going into it I was naïve to an extent, to even have let my guards down to an extent. But what was most important was not so much about winning because clearly you don't get into -- they always say the hardest thing in politics is to lose, you know. And no matter what they say, that dents you for life.

JEANThe good thing about it is I didn't lose. They took me out on this technicality because they assumed that I would win. But it's not about me. It was about what is gonna go on after these 250,000 people who's under the rubble in this earthquake that just happened? Corporate interests will come in and they're gonna say, look man, we can rebuild these homes for you. What do you need? You need agriculture? Guess what? We can -- some government has to step up and say, look our greatest asset here is human capital and I'm representing the people. So you are going to get your contracts but you are not going to pimp us. This is not going to work.

JEANThis was an opportunity to put over 52 percent of the population -- the youth population to work and that's why I ran at the time.

NNAMDIWe're going to take a short break. When we come back, we'll continue our conversation with Wyclef Jean. If you have called, stay on the line. We will get to your calls. The line is -- the number is 800-433-8850. Call with your questions for Wyclef Jean. You can also send us email to kojo@wamu.org. Wyclef Jean's new memoir is called "Purpose: An Immigrant's Story written with Anthony Bozza. Wyclef Jean is an award-winning musician, actor and producer. You can also send us a Tweet at kojoshow. I'm Kojo Nnamdi.

NNAMDIWe're talking with Wyclef Jean about his art, his music, his life, and his new memoir, "Purpose: An Immigrant's Story." Wyclef Jean is an award-winning musician, actor, and producer. Yele, the charity you founded already had deep roots in Haiti when the earthquake hit in 2010. Even still it was an overwhelming experience for all, and the aid organizations and the individuals on the ground. You arrived in the country the morning after the quake. What was that experience like for you? I read it in the book, but I'd like you to share a little bit of that with our listeners.

JEANTwenty-four hours after the quake, I arrived. Before that I was in a studio in New York watching CNN and I saw my uncle came on, Ray Joseph, at the time, and I went to Anderson Cooper I think at the time, and I said, look, I'm looking for my friend Jimmy, oh I got to go straight to Haiti. The towers were down, so we go through the DR, flying small planes in, you're flying on your own risk because there's no towers.

NNAMDINo air traffic controllers. You're flying...

JEANNo air traffic controllers. You can get...

NNAMDIFrom the Dominican Republic into Haiti, you're flying low.

JEANYou're flying low and your flying on your own risk. So think about what I just did. I just got on a plane. This is the start of it. Now, I land, I see the president at the time, Preval, different people. Man, I go into the streets and...

NNAMDIWell, the reason they were all at the airport is because the airport was the only place where things weren't falling.

JEANThat was the only safe haven, and it wasn't even the airport, it was on the tarmac.

NNAMDICorrect.

JEANThe tarmac was the only thing safe and I left the tarmac and I went to the streets, and the best way I can describe the streets is night of the living dead. Everybody either was missing an arm, missing a leg, or they were dead on the floor, or they had white powder that would you think was on their face, but this all came from the bricks and the rubble, and amongst that we're moving hotels turned to morgues. Morgues ran out of room. Cemeteries were being hustled by the undertakers that were putting more than one body in the hole.

JEANI completely lost my mind when I seen that. I had one of my campos, one of my soldiers. I said Joe, stand here, make sure he's not putting more than one person in a hole.

NNAMDIThis is after you had threatened him, but go ahead.

JEANYeah. Yeah. You know, I threatened the undertaker, and I said look, you know, you put more than one person in the hole, you gonna be in the hole basically. And I left my soldier there to make sure that happened. After I leave, they shoot my soldier, they kill him. Then, of course, keep in mind everything that's going on at one time. Bodies are being brought to this people -- undertaker, then they shoot somebody. You say it's getting crazy. Then I lose my mind completely, and -- but I always remember the girl that I save from the rubble.

NNAMDIEven thought you didn't know really that you had saved her until later.

JEANThat's right. And that's always -- because sometimes, right, this is how I learned how to deal with tragedy, because it looks like it's dark, and then there's one little experience that just shows you that the possibility of light always exists.

NNAMDIAnd that's what that little girl did. You can find it in the memoir "Purpose" by Wyclef Jean. Two, almost three years later, are you frustrated by where clean-up efforts stand in Haiti now?

JEANWell, understanding policy more, and really having a full understanding of how long it takes to remove people, if you have been to Port au Prince in the past four of five months, you will see it's different. You will see actually that where the tents was at there are tent cities being moved, you know. But my message though -- my message to everybody, because I always speak clear, I don't know no other way to speak, is that let's just make sure that as we're cleaning up these tent cities, that we really are structuring the situation where we're not creating Haiti as an NGO where we're giving the possibilities of just NGOs, you see?

JEANFor example, I don't have no problem with Sean Penn. I'm a fan of Sean Penn. You know, we had our little scruffle, then we made it up, right, and we talked good. I'm a big fan of Oprah Winfrey, right? I was on the show. I don't have no problem. But when I'm looking at Oprah's show and then I see like Sean Penn, I see Donna Karan, you know, these are all my friends, but coming from Haiti, it's like I wish like Oprah showed the other side too, like the beautiful beaches, the waterfalls, you know, kids running in the white sand where we say, okay, this is where we was at in NGO city, but look where the future can go where we can become. So as a Haitian-American, these are some of the things I'd like to see.

NNAMDIAs a matter of fact, while we were in Haiti, one of the things we go from people there is that they don't like the approach that some people have of a kind of we're going to save the whales in Haiti because we feel that we have a country that we can ultimately run, and while we appreciate people extending a helping hand to us, these people need to understand that we have the capacity to run our own affairs in our own country.

JEANYes, sir.

NNAMDIOn to the telephones. Here is Tom in Vienna, Va. Tom, you're on the air. Go ahead, please.

TOMThank you very much, Kojo. Wyclef, I just -- I got back from Haiti about a month ago with -- my daughter and I went down there to do so work and, you know, just a tremendous experience. And one of the things I came away with was this idea that, you know, my idea of Haiti that I went down with was very different when I got back, and talking to folks when I did get back and try to get them to do something, you know, like what we were doing, you know. There's this prevalent that, you know, Haiti's beyond help, right, and I think it's just what you are saying a minute ago.

TOMPeople don't really understand what Haiti is like, what the people are like, or that, you know, there's something besides just some of the horrible conditions, you know. It's a PR -- it's really a PR crisis right now. There's got to be some sort of public relations that says, you know what, there's a different Haiti than you understand, and I think we have really done a disservice in our media in painting a picture of Haiti of this just -- of a place that, you know, isn't worth saving or it's beyond saving. So, I mean, I -- that's what I'd like to know, and how do you get that message out?

NNAMDIWyclef?

JEANTo your point, right, California, downtown got Skid Row. You know, Chicago, we know what, you know, those neighborhoods are like right now where the mayor, you know, has to bring help in. Jamaica got Tivoli Garden, and (unintelligible) . When we talk about Haiti to your point, you hit the key, PR crisis. That's the problem that we have.

JEANIn order to get past our PR crisis, the first thing that has to happen is these United States of America, our country, has to raise the mandate that says this is one of the most dangerous places in the world, and when you go there you're going on your own risk. This still exists, and a lot of Americans, a lot of different people want to go to Haiti, but the first thing they do is they check the Internet.

JEANSo before you can actually get a PR company to even start saying go back to Haiti, what's old is what's new, you know, it would -- it's gonna take legislation, it's gonna take policy, it's gonna take policy, it's gonna take the U.S. to say, you know what, this place is safe, let's raise the mandate. Because, you know, when you are going somewhere with your daughter for example, or I'm going somewhere with my daughter and my wife, the first thing I do is look at the Internet, and I look at the crime rate, and I say, you know, if the U.S. says don't go here, it's not safe, I am not going. So I think that's one of the things we need to do.

NNAMDIAnd thank you very much for your call, Tom. You too can call, 800-433-8850. When we were in Haiti, we noticed lots of people wearing T-shirts the Yele logo, but the group's spending after the earthquake came into question after you left its leadership to pursue politics. What do you say now to the allegations of misspent funds?

JEANWell, the first thing you say is after I left the leadership. One I decided that I'm going to run for president, I left Yele and just started working directly towards the campaign. The first thing I'm going say is I won't point fingers, like I said. The -- within any organization governance is key, and the first thing we did was work on the governance, and got the governance to an area where people was comfortable, and like I said, you know, on Oprah, you know, within organizations, the most important thing to do is -- at the end of the day, I'm proud of everyone that worked for Yele because it existed before the earthquake.

JEANAnd as a young charity organization, the whole media came down on us. But at the end of the day, I am still and will strongly stand behind this foundation.

NNAMDIWhat involvement, if any, do you have with Yele today?

JEANWell, my involvement is not just with Yele, it's with World Food Program, it's with UNICEF, it's with Red Cross, it's with the president of Haiti. You know, my thing is it's a Haiti thing for me. Yele was -- you know why I created Yele? Because I wanted other NGOs to actually land on the ground, make what they were doing effective. 2005, after the president Jean-Bertrand Aristide got ousted out of Haiti, when the gangs rose, I'm the one that got World Food Program Yele Haiti stickers so that they can bring their trucks in the slums so they don't get shot up.

NNAMDIOn now to Victoria in Alexandria, Va. Victoria, you're on the air, go ahead, please.

VICTORIAHi Kojo. Thank you for taking my call. My question is actually more about one word. Wyclef, I don't know -- I was wanting to ask you if you're familiar with the word zo? I had a Haitian friend explain to me this concept of national identity. This word zo, it means another Haitian person, and the way he explained it to me was that it's kind of this greater idea that you'll take care of one another, that you're part of this greater community, and no matter where you are in the world, people recognize that word and identify by it. Thank you.

NNAMDIWyclef?

JEANWell, I'm going to tell you where the actual word comes from. Zo means bones. Zo means bones. And the word started off in Little Haiti with cruel boys that called themselves the zo-pound. And, you know, you should definitely look at it online.

NNAMDIHas it come to take on another meaning?

JEANWell, what happens is, the Crips and Bloods, the Black Panther, I'm just giving you different phrases.

NNAMDIOkay.

JEANWhen you find the leaders that started a lot of these things, what it has morphed into today is not what it started off as. It started off as we have to protect our communities, and we're in a position where we don't necessarily trust the police because we don't like what they're doing to the communities, and through the years, as things start to develop, different people infiltrate the movements, and that's where we're at today.

JEANThe idea of an original gang was never, you know -- George Washington had the original gang, you know what I mean? So the idea of the original zo is the word for brotherhood. It's like you're my backbone. I'm your bone, you know what I mean?

NNAMDIMm-hmm.

JEANSo that's the original zo, you know what I mean? And a shout out to my people in Little Haiti.

NNAMDIWell, want to get back to music for a second, because for people who have visited Haiti, one thing that stands out is the strong artistic tradition in both music and in visual arts that still prevail even in the poorest areas. Was that tradition something your family carried with them or found in the Haitian community in New Jersey or that you had to rediscover as you got older? Is that a tradition that's always been with you?

JEANWell, I was in the church, so there was a group of music I could not listen to. Through my uncle, Renel Duplessis, who put us inside of that basement, who he loved deejaying, he was the one that this is how we discovered our Haitian music back was through him because we would be downstairs doing hip-hop, and he'd be upstairs blasting, you know, like, New York, New York City, New City, New York, New York City (speaks foreign language) .

JEANAnd we was making fun of it. That's how I know. (singing) , you know, and then sometimes, you know, we'd go upstairs and be like, yo uncle, let me borrow that record, and we'd go downstairs and we would sample it and put in some hip-hop, you know. And years later it becomes "The Carnival."

NNAMDIIsn't that amazing, and your uncle say, okay, so y'all used to tease me about is this stuff and now you actually find yourself using this stuff. So what's next for you? Are you going to make another run at politics in Haiti?

JEANWhat's next for me right now is I just got back into the music business with a new model. And the model is the man in the middle, and what that means is basically after learning from people like Jimmy Iovine, Clive Davis, who was at my dad's funeral. I have a lot of respect for Clive, I made a lot of labels like billions of dollars, and I'm okay, so I'm not complaining. So I'm fortunate. But there is a space in the middle which is very important.

JEANWhy is this space in the middle important for artists is because every artists who are looking at TV now or looking at us think when they come out they have to sell 500,000 records, they got to be Kanye, they got to be Jay-Z, the gotta be Eminem, you know, they got to be Rhianna. But what happened to the artist development, you know? The space in the middle, an artist should be able to place the saxophone and come out and sell 3,000 copies, and that's the next Charlie Parker, you know? So my idea is I'm in the space in the middle looking for talent to develop talent.

NNAMDIWyclef Jean, now the man in the middle. He's an award-winning musician, actor, and producer. His new memoir called "Purpose: An Immigrant's Story." Wyclef Jean, than, you so much for joining us.

JEANThank you for having me.

NNAMDIAnd thank you all for listening. I'm Kojo Nnamdi.