Wyclef Jean Quotes

Music is music; you don't have to put a label on it.

Times were changing. Clothes were changing. Morals were changing. We went from romantic loves songs like I used to do to rock 'n roll. Now that has changed to rap. So, there's always a new generation with new music.

We have been trying to play a lot of different kinds of music, and probably the next album will go back more towards the direction where you couldn't classify each song as a certain kind of music. This album you can.

It's a really diverse time in music, with all these different DJs and all these different categories, and we are all taking footnotes from everyone else. There are no real genre boundaries anymore; you can take a trance idea and put it into a trap record - it's not that uncommon.

Just the type of music that was around at the same time as I was writing. Some of it was wicked, definitely. But there was just one direction which I thought could be pushed that no one was pushing.

In the future I think the labels on most pop music are going to go. Everyone keeps jumping into everyone else's space.

I've been criticized for doing so - crossover music. But I never claimed to be a pure dancehall artist.

Who's to say a blues man can't play rock and roll?

I think I have a different view of what pop is and what can be acceptable in that realm. I feel good about that. I want fans to see that not everything's so black and white with genres.

Normally, things are viewed in these little segmented boxes. There's classical, and then there's jazz; romantic, and then there's baroque. I find that very dissatisfying. I was trying to find the thread that connects one type of music - one type of musician - to another, and to follow that thread in some kind of natural, evolutionary way.

I'm a traditional country singer and we're always trying to make that a fresh and modern sound. That's always going to be the challenge with me.

I didn't get into music to become a blues musician, or a country musician. I'm a singer-songwriter. In my book that means I get to do whatever I want.

I'm not too bothered about what category my music goes in and there's no point in limiting in who you can reach, but I want it to be respected.

To break R&B into subcategories does a disservice to the music. I like to live in a zone where I can do whatever I want, where I don't have to worry about genre.

Maybe one day music will just be music, and there won't be these categories; it'll just be different shades of music.

Hip-hop educated me about other forms of music, because it sampled from all different styles.

Now, it's almost impossible to go out and do a film about a new form of music.

Some people think I'm a rock 'n' roll musician and some think I'm a jazz musician but, for me, there is no difference.

I've made more than 50 records with a wide range of music. I've often veered to check something out.

Music was segregated in the '80s, and then in the '90s the boundaries started to break down, and rock kids got into electronic music. But then you got this reverse snobbery where people would only listen to electronic music and not rock.

Too much emphasis is put on American roots music when people try and place me. You know, I grew up listening to punk.

Growing up, I didn't really like folk music - I wasn't a fan of Bob Dylan. I grew up mostly listening to rap and hip-hop; it was this new form of music.

All along, I did what I was comfortable doing, which was to play the music I enjoyed and try to stretch the parameters a bit. Country and bluegrass and folk were my foundation.

Rap music's been around for too long now to be inspirational. The words are, but the music isn't.

A name doesn't make the music. It's just called that to differentiate it from other types of music.