Notes from #WebSummit: A production masterclass with Wyclef Jean
A reminder to always be your most authentic self.
Details
Date: November 9, 2017
Time: 13:35
Conference stream: MusicNotes
Speakers
Wyclef Jean, musician & philanthropist
Nelson Freitas, musician
D.A.M.A., band
Web Summit Summary
Three-time Grammy award-winning artist and producer, Wyclef Jean, will be demonstrating his production chops by producing a track from his new album Carnival III live on stage with collaborations with local singers, musicians and…NASA?
“I’m from Haiti.” That’s what Wyclef Jean led with when he walked out onto the Web Summit stage on Thursday afternoon. “I’m an immigrant, my parents were refugees, I’m from the ghetto.” This is who I am, he told us right away. My history and my context matter.
“Anyone here who doesn’t know who Wyclef Jean is?” he asked us. “All right,” after someone very brave near the front raised their hand, “let me tell you.” He proceeded to reel off a handful of his best-known achievements including “Fu-Gee-La” with the legendary Fugees, Shakira’s “Hips Don’t Lie,” and Santana’s “Maria Maria”. “And,” he noted, “I sound like an old man up here, but that new DJ Khaled single ‘Wild Thoughts,’ with Rihanna? They’re sampling Uncle Wyclef’s music.” Applause.
We spent the next half hour reveling in the boundless charisma and confidence and musical talent contained in this one man. The session was ostensibly a “production masterclass,” but there wasn’t a lot of teaching happening, although we got a live demo—some of the musicians on stage recreated their parts from Wyclef’s new single “Borrowed Time,” which also features sounds from NASA’s Jupiter mission. Wyclef treated us to a little medley of some of his hits (“Ooh La La La” was a true crowd favourite) and he and the band lip-synched to “Borrowed Time,” freshly recorded tracks and all. You never expect to have fun like that at a tech conference, even one as jam-packed as Web Summit.
As fun as it was, the key factor for me was the authenticity. Wyclef Jean is who he is because of his history and his experience and he makes sure that you know it. He’s going to tell you about all the amazing things he’s already done because that stuff’s important. He’s going to tell you about his childhood growing up in the ghetto and make jokes about it because that’s the reason he’s here doing what he’s doing. Although our paths to the things we do aren’t always orthodox or conventional, the reason we’ve landed in the places we’ve landed is often because of those unconventional paths, not in spite of them.
It sounds a little cliché, but after the dancing stopped and the exclamations of “Whoa, that was amazing!” quieted down, I was thinking about my own paths, and my own approach to music and software engineering and everything else I do in my life, and how I should spend more time appreciating how I got there instead of worrying about whether I was doing it the “wrong” way. Not at all what I was expecting from this week, but then again, how can you predict what you’ll get from Uncle Wyclef?
“Anyone here still don’t know who Wyclef Jean is?” he asked us later in the session. This time: not a single hand.
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