1.21.2007

Joss Stone Hones In On Soul With Lauryn Hill

British neo-soul songstress Joss Stone will return with her third album March 20th. Lauryn Hill is one of several guests lined up for effort. Hill appears rapping on Stone’s new track “Music.” Other collaborators on the effort include rapper Common, multi-talented producer Raphael Saadiq and producer Beau Dozier who worked on Mind Body & Soul.

“It’s a very special song to me that I wrote with Novel. This song is my realization moment, when I realized I was wasting my time looking for an unconditional love in another human being. So far in my short little life, I haven’t ever seen it completely. All love between all humans, I believe, is a tiny bit conditional. It’s not like that with music. The only true unconditional love is music and God, for me. The fact that Lauryn Hill was inspired by it enough to write what she did is just is crazy to me. I prayed on that one hard. She’s amazing. My biggest influences on the female side of music are Lauryn and Aretha, no doubt.”

“Lauryn Hill is just such an amazing artist. The song ‘Music’ started [off] based on an old Fugees song. We ended up taking a complete departure from the original, but it still had the vibe, and we just said how amazing it would be to have Lauryn do a verse. I called her mother every day for an entire month begging until she got the track to Lauryn. Her mother told me she really liked it and wanted to do it, and actually did her part through the phone. Every time I hear her on my song, it brings tears to my eyes.”

Source: accesshollywood.com, AOL Music

1.07.2007

Wyclef Gives Free Concert in Jacmel, Haiti

The week-long YéleFest celebration in Jacmel, Haiti, culminated in a free concert for an estimated 40,000 people on December 1, 2006. YéleFest brought young Haitian artists, filmmakers, musicians and actors together for one week of activities in Jacmel, Haiti, with representatives of non-governmental organizations, volunteer groups, development agencies and donor governments. The program was designed to allow these diverse groups the opportunity to explore ways to use culture and the arts to create new models for achieving sustainable development.

source: yele.org

RELATED LINKS
Video: Watch Wyclef perform
Photos: Wyclef Jean’s Free Concert in Jacmel
Message Board: GET TO KNOW Yéle Haiti