Wyclef Jean Quotes

I would love to continue working behind the scenes in music - to produce and manage up-and-coming musical talent would be a dream!

I was with PolyGram; that was the big label that I was with for the longest, like 12 years.

My record label is treating me like I'm a new artist, which is exciting after all this time.

I just think that any person who wants music to be their career shouldn't focus on a record label. I have seen friends who sign to a label too early in their career, and they lost control over their music, and their releases were delayed or never put out.

Artist development is something that I've been passionate about from my days at Uptown and Motown Records.

Doing things in my day was simple: you either signed to a big label or you signed to a very small label, and you worked with that one, and then they eventually signed you on to a big one.

Actually, we got signed in November of 2000 with Dreamworks which is the most amazing label. We have friends on other labels and though we are not selling millions of records, yet, they treat us with tons of respect and give us some very good guidance.

Metro was really a star-builder, no doubt about that. You were wrapped in cotton wool.

I never had to ask Def Jam for anything.

Working with Tesco has been such an interesting avenue to go down that I'm keen to find other avenues to release music.

My A&R at Epic got fired the first week I got signed.

Jimmy Iovine signed me personally to a million-dollar contract, and I lost my identity for a long time. That system is so predicated on making a hit, or you're out of here.

As an artist development platform, we've proven that all the work done behind the scenes at American Idol, along with surviving the rigors of the intense live shows, can properly prepare a winner for a real-world music career opportunity.

I'm so glad I didn't go into the big-music industry until I was 19 or 20.

I'm not interested in anything besides making some good music, helping some artists, being an executive. I'm pretty happy with that.

When you're 17 and a record label says, 'Hey, do pop,' you listen.

If a new artist comes, and he doesn't have a good record label to invest in him, then there is no point.

I was fortunate enough to have gone through the major label process and kind of have the inside scoop on some things, some information I wouldn't have normally had. To go from a major to an independent, I don't think it's an easy transition.

You know, I didn't have enough money to quit my day job... the myth of the major label deal. Nowadays, you have a tour bus and a stylist and all this stuff. But back then, no way.

Getting a record deal is a meaningless thing now.

When I was young, I was offered my first recording contract in 1971 and was offered quite a bit of money if I would change my character and be a '70s version of Cher.

I was signed to A&M, I was signed to Lou Adler, who had a company within a company, which was A&M Records, and everything - James Taylor, Rita Coolidge, Carole King - I worked on all of that stuff.

This is a very screwed-up business. Record labels don't sign a lot of bands these days. We just want to find a home and stay there and make records and do our thing and not have to look over our shoulder.

I'm really happy with Elektra, I don't have anything bad to say about them at all. I always knew a major label was the right place for me to be. I never really had an opportunity to go to an independent label anyway.

So there was a way for you to get promoted and survive as an artist without worrying about AM radio hits.