Wyclef Attire

Music fans have been waiting for someone to take rap to the next level. Maybe a guy like Bob Marley--someone who could fuse American and Caribbean music. Or perhaps someone from the Nineties who could stand alongside the giants of rock and roll. Wyclef Jean, hip-hop virtuoso, is the answer. He raps in Creole and English; he plays The Star-Spangled Banner on a guitar with his teeth. The signs were there when his band the Fugees went global a year before Puff Daddy did and sold more than 10 million copies of The Score. Then came Jean's ebullient 1997 solo album. The Carnival, a syncretic triumph of hip-hop, reggae, zouk and rock. The platinum-seller is a showcase for the 27-year-old's impressive talents as composer and arranger. It features such performers as Celia Cruz, the Neville Brothers and 62 members of the New York Philharmonic. Jean even managed to snare Bob Dylan for a cameo appearance in the video for the hit single Gone Till November. When sales of The Carnival passed the 1 million mark, Columbia Records president Don Ienner told Billboard: "It's a pivotal record to put out at the end of the Nineties. Wyclef shows that you can make music for the people and for yourself artistically, and (concluded on page 144)Murlef Attire(continued from page 82) sell--not sell out."

In the past year, Wyclef has produced tracks for Warren Beatty's movie Bulworth and has worked on scoring ("not doing the soundtrack," he emphasizes) the new Eddie Murphy--Martin Lawrence picture. And of course, he has the careers of a Fugees-wide family of cousins and friends to develop.

For this feature, we paired Clef with another young visionary, designer Sandy Dalal, whose suits are to the eye what Wyclef's music is to the ear. The 22-year-old rocked the fashion world this summer with his plaids and prints and became the youngest winner of the Council of Fashion Designers of America's prestigious Perry Ellis Menswear Award. Call him a family man, too. While Dalal was a student at the University of Pennsylvania, his Indian-born parents and his friends raised $1.4 million to back him. His bedroom served as a showroom. Two years later his $250 shirts and $800 jackets are being fought over at Barneys. He designs with musicians such as Wyclef in mind. In fact, Wyclef's song Bubblegoose, about the death of his cousin, isn't clear unless you know that bubblegoose is slang for a down jacket. "That's how deep I am into fashion. A puffy goose-down square looks like a bubble," he explains. "And that's where my cousin got shot."

Wyclef possesses street cred without striking a phony gangster pose. To him, hard-core is a reflection of hard times. He grew up on the violent streets of Haiti before his family moved to Brooklyn when he was nine. The man has edge, which is apparent in the Creole lyrics of Sang Fezi: "Lèm té kon al lékol, Ámerikain té kon jourem/Yo té rélém nèg nwè, yo rélém ti nèg fumé/Jan yo palé, moin oue yo pa civilizé/Jon yo palé, moin oue oue yo pa kon Bon Dié" (When I went to school, Americans used to curse me/They used to call me Black Boy, they called me Little Smoky/The way they talk, I see they're uncivilized/The way they talk, I see they don't know God).

"Mom always told me to dress right," he says. "Going to the Grammys? Don't show up in Nikes. Shoes are very important." (He prefers a Wallabee-type shoe by Patrick Cox.) At the Grammys in 1997 Clef appeared onstage wrapped in the Haitian flag, establishing him as a hero for Haitian Americans. This year he was the guy who handed his mike to Ol' Dirty Bastard of the Wu-Tang Clan. ("ODB, that's my man. He made his statement.")

At our photo session he changes attitudes, "flipping" with each outfit. At one point he says to photographer Andrew Eccles, "Let me do my Dirk Diggler pose." Clef spreads his legs, grabs his crotch with one hand and does a thumbs-up under his chin with the other. With a crazy grin and his pants hiked up, he reminds us of Marky Mark. His assistant suggests something X-rated. "You want me to ruin my career?" he asks with a laugh. "Don't you know how important these pictures are? I have a 50-year plan, man." Fifty years in the music industry? He'll need a lot of outfits. --Christopher Napolitano