WYCLEF JEAN DROPS VIDEO FOR DANCEHALL TRACK “I PRAY!”

Observer writer—

Haitian American rapper Wyclef Jean released the video for his first dancehall track I Pray last week.

Directed by JJ of Star Imag3 Films, the video was shot while the platinum-selling act was here in Jamaica in January for the Shaggy and Friends charity concert.

On the track, produced by Charlie Charlie, Jean says he prays for incarcerated deejays Vybz Kartel, Ninjaman and Buju Banton. Clips of Ninjaman and Vybz Kartel are featured in the video.

The song is a remix from Hendrix, a song featured on Jean’s album The Carnival III: Road to Clefication, which speaks about Jean’s childhood dream of becoming a rock star while his cousin aspired to be a drug trafficker like Pablo Escobar.

“It’s about the idea of choice; you can choose the gun or choose the music, choose the drug or choose the music; there is always an alternative. This tune tells the story of how it was for me, but my cousin chose a different route. When I came out here just visiting different places and seeing how the youths look up to me I wanted to do a remix and give them that message,” Jean told the Jamaica Observer.

He said he felt inspired upon visiting McGregor Gully in East Kingston.

“I was just walking and the crowd was coming like ‘Wyclef, Wyclef’ and this kid, Charlie Charlie, had a beat on his phone. He said ‘Yow Wyclef I need you on this riddim’. He put the phone in my ear and I was like ‘Yow this riddim bad’. I asked where the studio was and I went and recorded it,” said Jean.

Buju Banton is set for release in December following a 2011 cocaine sentence. Ninjaman and Vybz Kartel, however, are serving life sentences for the murders of Ricardo “Ricky Trooper” Johnson and Clive “Lizard” Williams, respectively.