If you do not know the name, Wyclef Jean (something you don't want to admit to your friends), then probably you don't follow the music scene intently. He is only one of the top musicians as well as producers in the music industry today. Always on the move, literally and figuratively, he has signed two new groups (City High and the Prodigy & B off the popular Santana album from last summer) to his own label. Not bad for a cat originally from Haiti who moved to the U.S. with his family, settling into the Marlboro Projects on Coney Island. At that time hip-hop was in its infancy, but you could get a hint of the things to come from the sounds blaring from boom boxes and cars with bone-shaking sound systems. Music was everywhere and Wyclef wanted to be a part of that.
One way to be closer to his passion was to upgrade the audio setup in his first car, an old school '64 Chevy lowrider type (that is, in terms of style, not with the hydraulics, etc.). He remembers his first head unit being a Sony. Growing up with a love of music and having "studio ears" (something we hope to gain more insight on later when we go back to visit him in the studio) Wyclef always liked to hear the full spectrum of the music, no matter the volume; that explains his careful manipulation of EQ controls to get what he calls the "bulletproof system," or the desired clean sound quality.
Obviously the '64 Chevy isn't Wyclef's main ride anymore. The Mercedes V8 V500 seen here was imported from Germany as a birthday gift from Jerry Wonder (Wyclef's Gemini twin). With the idea of building the MadMax of media systems Wyclef took the vehicle to Will of Unique Autosports (UA) in Uniondale, New York. In the photos you can see there is a satellite bubble on the roof. It's the first we have seen on an SUV. This is a custom-built satellite system by UA and it's not there just for display purposes. Working in the music industry Wyclef spends a lot of his time on the road; with the mobile satellite TV system, he can make sure his groups are getting their proper "spins" or airplay, for instance on BET and MTV. He also has a portable Sony DAT player. And that's because DAT is still the standard format in studio recording - remember the Alpine car audio DAT player from the late eighties? The portable player allows him to reference new tracks outside the studio and to work on equalization.