“part of the music industry. “For somebody who is
starting out, where do I start?” – Oh man that’s
a good question. I think it’s a little more
easier for you, Omar, than it was for me.
– 100%. There’s a thing called
the fucking internet. – Yeah. The internet is key. Really for me we had to sit the
Fugees literally had to sit through 7,000 A/Rs. Saying this shit
ain’t gonna work. Like rappers playing guitars
and women singing and rapping? No, no, no that’s too much. So with the internet you can
actually build your own audience. – And you were going through
that process, I’m trying to think back what that was
happening ’91, two and three before four and five?
93, 94 when it happened? – Man, it was
going like ’93, ’94. Do you know how weird it is
1993 a group shows up with an acoustic guitar and we
tell them that we hip hop. We from the ‘hood. And then you have one girl and
Clef grabs his and another kids a rocker and I start playing
guitar and Lauren starts to sing John Lennon “Imagine”
then I going to a freestyle. Can you imagine somebody
who is A&Ring that time? – They didn’t know.
– Do you know what I mean? The beautiful thing about the
internet right here is that you get to create your world. And if your music or
whatever you’re doing is really original, it’s going to find its key
audience because through the internet we’ve learned
it’s a big universe, right? You got your crowd. – I completely agree with him
and I say this all the time. The best way to sell is
for people to come to you. The fact that there are things
now like Musically and Snapchat and Instagram and all the other
platforms we know, the fact you can actually produce music,
put it on Soundcloud and actually serendipitously walk
into shit because somebody heard it or shared it and
changed your world. And that’s just incredible. People didn’t have
that opportunity. There are so many, how many Fugees,
how many this is, I’m dying to ask
you this question: How many very
talented musicians do you think did not get
discovered in the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s because there was
just only some many A/R people, they maybe live in Memphis,
they maybe lived in Haiti, they lived in Belarus? In your opinion do you believe
that if you were great it would have just happened or do you
think in the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s a generation that we
don’t grow up any more there were actually real big-time
talents that never got their opportunity ’cause they just
didn’t have the being in the right place at the right time? – Yeah but you know what’s
funny about what you said, right, is you see
the music of the 50s, the 40s, the 60s, the 70s was a different thing because people wasn’t worried
about show business. – Right. People was more
worried about– – The music.
– the music. – You see so this is how we
know of the Loneliest Monk. This is how we could go
back to Muddy Waters. – Mhmmm. (Wyclef singing) – It wasn’t really about,
because think about it now. Whenever we, this generation,
want inspiration as a producer and we go out, I’m in the
studio with Avicci. – Okay.
– Right. And were sitting in
winter in Stockholm. It’s dark, right? – Yep. – We’re sitting there and
we’re talking about chords and progressions. What’s the reference? We go back to freaking
Ray Charles “Georgia.” – Mhmmm. – At the end of the day, I just
think that we have to understand that the idea of the Fugees was musicality. It wasn’t like oh man we about
to do something to get put on so people know who we were.
– Right. – Man, if you listen to the
first Fugees album it’s called “Blunted on Reality”. The whole album starts out with
a poem where the Ku Klux Klan is trying to come and invade this
generation and we talk about we are not going for that.
– Allow that. – Yeah. If you trying to be in the music
business this is not the first message that you
want to put out. I think that the key to
everything whether if it’s art, whether if it’s think of like a Picasso when you
look at that piece. Or of think of Basquiat when
you look at a piece or just the Miles Davis “Bitches Brew” no
one thinking about so the idea is we have to think
1,000 years from now. Is this conversation
going to be relevant? And I really think that’s
my key with this generation. And that’s the only thing
that I tell them. I’m like, “Yo, you’re spitting out hits. Every second.” Every second on Musically my
daughter is singing a new song. Right?
– Yep. – And the new one is
(signing in broken Japanese) and then she puts me on Musically and
she like, “Come on, Dad.” (laughter) “No Dad. You’re doing it
wrong, come back again.” – Yep. Third take. – Third take and what
I notice is like 70 songs, songs are playing and I say,
“Angelina, who’s this artists?” – She’s like, “I don’t know.” – She don’t know but
she knows the song. I think if we can push more
musicality to your point because there are a lot of bad
ass artists out there. They’re on the internet,
you know what I mean? We just got a
focus on musicality. – Don’t you think these platforms give musicality
a better chance? Because back to your point you
brought musicality and the human being that was thinking business
is like, “Who wants this black guy playing and the girl sings?” Right.
– That’s right. – That’s what stopped musicality
and now the open platforms I actually think give
musicality a real opportunity. – Yeah, sexy black guy. – Respect.
– Yeah. – Respect. Alright, India,
let’s move this. – [India] Next one’s
from Alexander.