Music Monday: Sweetest Girl

"Cause, I'mma tell you, like Wu told me,
Cash rules everything around me..."


Two weeks (or so) ago, Scott Pelley interveiwed musician Wyclef Jean for television news magazine 60 Minutes. As part of the interview, Pelley joined Wyclef on one of his many visits to Haiti, the country from which Wyclef emigrated while a very young child.

Though he grew up in New York City, Wyclef never forgot his Haitian roots. Since achieving a level of success, fame and affluence as a hip-hop artist nearly twenty years ago, Wyclef has spent much of his time and money on efforts to draw international attention to the many health and financial problmes in Hait, a nation where the average Haitian lives on $300 a year.

The song above, "Sweetest Girl (Dollar Bill)," is from Wyclef's most recent recording, The Carnival II: Memoirs of an Immigrant. In an odd way this song strikes me as being a thematic throwback to the politically-charged, musically subversive hip-hop of my youth--the type of songs (Public Enemy, Boogie Down Productions) while defending the art form to those who haven't really listened to it before... and in sharp contrast to the more exploitative, hard core, "music" which has been so popular in the suburbs over the past fifteen years or so.

Embrassez votre été invincible!