Wyclef Jean, 'If I Were President' (Sessions)

WJ: For me, with this album, it's really like my first solo album, 'The Carnival' ? when I was just in that space where I wanted to experiment with all music around the world. When I went to Nigeria, I caught a rhythm. When I went to Ethiopia, I got a chance to hear another style of music. So I felt like I was being blessed in all of these places that I was going to because I felt like I had something that I could come back and sit in Manhattan and put together, which would change the world. And the album comes from the inspiration of human beings, and, if you want to have a great album, you have to travel and you have to go around the world. You have to meet people. You gotta experience it. The idea of you thinking you're a genius because you just want to do the kind of music that you like that don't advance the race. If you look at everybody that's great, whether it's Miles Davis to Hendrix, Bob Marley, everybody pick up and they go and once you start to travel ? because it's the universe [and] the music comes from the universe, right? You travel, you get to see it, but I think, in charity work, and in helping people, it makes you just want to think about what you're saying and what you do.
AOL: Do you feel like an ambassador through music, because there are people who are never going to get to go to these places, never see them, who hear your music?
WJ: Yeah, I'm a musical ambassador. So, if you want to hear what's coming out of India, out of Brazil, out of Africa, still with that hip-hop undertone, you gotta cop the Wyclef CD because I'm going to bring it you.
AOL: What are some of the issues that are most important to you coming up in this next year?
WJ: Straight up. The issues coming up in this next year are very important to me, man. Immigration is one of the issues. Because my parents, they came to this country illegally. I can admit that now. You all can't kick me out. It's too late. I'm already Wyclef Jean, but they came illegally and they work hard and they made something of themselves. And they didn't break no laws. They didn't go to prison. So I feel, after 9/11, we're just in a state of panic. The immigration laws, I feel like some of it is just overboard and I feel like we need to come up with some form of structure for people that's been here for over 25, 30 years that have put in their work in America. I don't feel like because these people don't have papers they should just be sent back. I do believe in border control because I ain't gonna be in my hood and dudes pulling up in my hood and I don't know who they are, if something happens. So, I'm not saying for there not to be law and order, but I'm saying for there to be fair to everybody.