Please call 911.
>> Pick up the phone.
>> White Cliff Jean is the son of a
preacher man who became a superstar with
his own message. The artist behind 90s
and early 2000s hits like this was born
poor in Haiti but raised in New York. A
young musical prodigy who found fame as
founding member of the rap group the
Fujis.
Killing me softly was a UK number one
from the group's bestselling album, The
Score.
>> This launched W Cliff into a different
sphere of celebrity.
>> Now that I escape, sleep awake.
>> As a producer, writer, and artist, Wiff
has worked with the great and the good.
From
Shakira to writing for pop mega stars,
White Cliff wrote this for Whitney
Houston
>> and his work is grounded in social and
political themes.
W Cliff even ran for president of Haiti
in 2010. Now 15 years on since his last
UK headline show, Wliffe is back in
London.
>> When you set out, did you imagine that
you'd have this career?
>> Did I think I was going to have this
career? What do we say from a from a
donkey to a Ferrari? You know, I'm
straight up from the hut. So when I got
to the projects, I was like, we made it.
So no um the idea of like being famous
was never in my head. So the whole thing
was like I was like yo we going to start
a movement cuz the movement going to be
bigger than the music right and then the
movement we going to start is going to
be called refugees and then when we we
didn't know about how you trademark
names or whatever and people was like yo
there's a rock band called Refugees. So
it was like all right short for refugees
we'll call it Fujis. you were called,
you know, the Fujis based on the
refugees. Right now, there is a huge
backlash, whether in the UK or the US
against migrants, we see anti-migrant
protests. What is it like to see that as
somebody who not only is a migrant, but
wanted to give a voice to the voiceless
with those kind of stories?
>> We got to get louder because it's like
you have to amplify truth. You know what
I'm saying? Remember Martin Luther King
like injustice in one place? It's like
if you let that slide that's going to be
everywhere and it becomes the norm. You
know what I mean? Fuji's came out in
'94. Think about it. The first album was
called Blundered on Reality. The first
song on there was a poem to the Ku Club
clan saying no more. We ain't going for
this. So at the end of the day I always
say um if you do if you don't speak it
just becomes the norm. And then you
might be like, "Oh, no. It ain't going
to reach me." Next thing you know, it is
going to reach you. You know what I
mean?
>> You had dabbled in the idea of becoming
president of Haiti. Do you think that
you were dabbling in politics in the US?
>> Why did I want to be president of my
country? Because I felt that there was a
void and the politicians were absent at
the time. Trust me, I did not want to
leave my my hips don't lie Shakira big
arenas. A thousand years from now,
what's going to matter? The music or the
movement? the movement will always
matter.
>> And how do you feel that the current
president, not in Haiti, but in the US
where you live now, how do you feel
about the job that that he's doing?
>> Well, again, I don't fall for the
distraction. America, we got Congress,
right? At the end of the day, what I
always tell the communities is who's
your mayor, who's your governor, who are
you sending to the house of
representative and that are speaking to
you because those people are going to be
more powerful than the actual president.
So, I don't even fall for the rhetoric.
I just keep it moving.
>> I mean, you are here in London, bank
holiday weekend. Carnival is coming.
Notting Hill Carnival, baby.
>> How many times have you been?
>> I've been like two, three times. I've
been to Carnival.
>> Carnival is a big theme in your in your
work. Why carnival?
>> Well, coming from the Caribbean, like
carnival is just it it's festive. It's
it's part of what we do. It brings
peace. It brings enjoyment. It brings
food. It's like the one time that the
truce happens, right? It it's it's where
you get to celebrate culture. Did you
ever imagine now that you would be
competing against machines and software,
AI and that kind of technology?
>> When I teach kids about AI, first things
I say, I am the master of AI. AI is not
the master of a I'm from 1994. I just
look like Benjamin Button. So, think
about this. I'm from the era where they
was cutting the tape and now you at a
streaming rate. I have billions of
streams now in this modern day. How am I
not a machine and I'm able to do that?
Right? Because what happens is is the
machine smarter than us or are we
getting less creative because we have
these tools in their place. So at the
end of the day, I say fear not the AI.
You have to be at your highest level of
creativity. You know what the AI do not
have? It don't have a soul.
>> So after four decades in the game, what
can we look forward to? I gotta go back
to the foundation. 70% of my new album
I'm rapping. You know, I ain't really
rapping in 15 years. Like really ram
rap. So, I'm excited about that. Um, you
know, me and Miss Hill, we vibing. The
connection is there. Like, what is that
going to bring? A lot of energy, a lot
of new artists.
>> So, will you be catching a wine at
Carnival this weekend?
>> I mean, I'm definitely going to catch a
wine in car. I'm a Caribbean, baby. How
I'm not going to catch North Wine P
Carnival. What happened to you? Look, my
whole accent changed. Yes, definitely.
Look, you know, I'm a big sound system
guy. Look forward to it. It's gonna be
crazy.
>> White Cliff, a pleasure.
>> Pleasure is mine.