To the former Fugees frontman Wyclef Jean, “the way I paint my music” is a bit like the way Basquiat painted his canvases, Jean said after an energetic concert at the Pérez Art Museum Miami (Pamm) on Monday night. Basquiat, whose father came from the musician’s hometown of Croix-des-Bouquets, just outside Port-au-Prince, is “someone I follow a lot”, Jean said. The late artist’s style of “leaving the painting up to the audience to figure out what it is, that’s how I perform—in an eclectic fashion”. Indeed, “eclectic” is an understatement when used to describe Jean’s hour-and-a-half-long performance, which careened from his hits with Lauryn Hill (Ready or Not) and Shakira (Hips Don’t Lie) to karaoke-style singalongs to classics by Guns ’n’ Roses, a rousing rendition of The Star-Spangled Banner and duets with his Miami-based sister, Melky. He occasionally freestyled lyrics to include Pamm’s billionaire benefactor Jorge Pérez’s name, and even rhymed “trustees” with “Fugees”. Twice he told the well-heeled audience, “If you don’t know me, Google me—I’m kinda famous.”
