The Bio
Claim to Fame: Co-founder of the mega '90s hip-hop group The Fugees.
Founded: Yéle Haiti, whose projects range from garbage cleanup to tree planting, school programs, and promoting small businesses (yele.org).
Honorary Position: Roving Ambassador for Haiti.
Latest Album: Carnival II: Memoirs of an Immigrant, with Paul Simon, Norah Jones, Shakira, and others.
Current Obsession: Together for Haiti, which hopes to raise $48 million to alleviate food shortages, and the post-hurricane Haiti Storm Relief Fund

Travel Log
Last Trip: Bahamas, real laid-back spirit to it. You feel you could just sleep on the beaches for a week straight.
Next Trip: To Argentina, to shoot a video. There's a big fuss going on about tango, so I look forward to learning a little bit and incorporating it into my music.
Dream Trip: Seven days of total pampering, with a 24-hour chef and in a spot where the temperature is not warm but hot—like Rio de Janeiro.
Favorite Trip: Always Haiti. What makes each trip there incredible is the discovery of places like Turtle Island, the original home of the pirates of the Caribbean, and Jacmel, whose people helped Venezuela gain independence.

CNT: What did you find in Haiti following the recent hurricanes?

Jean: People should not have to live like that after such disasters. I'm calling upon the world to help build a better infrastructure so fewer lives will be lost.

CNT: Why did you get involved in philanthropy in Haiti?

Jean: An inner voice kept saying, "You can't leave these kids behind because you could have been one of them." So I started my foundation, Yéle [from the Creole word for shout]. I didn't want Haitian kids to think the world had forgotten them.

CNT: Describe Yéle's core projects.

Jean: We are responsible for close to 4,000 kids getting scholarships, and we renovate schools. Sports and music are key. If you create music and sports programs, the crime rate goes down. Not just in Haiti but in the world.

CNT: You work in Port-au-Prince's Cité Soleil slums. Can you really help?

Jean: People come to the city for a better life, so the slum population is now over 300,000, with house crammed upon house. But Cité Soleil has so much talent that we're trying to develop it like they did in Waterhouse, one of Jamaica's roughest areas. We're hoping to build a Yéle center that could be a hub, like Oprah Winfrey's school in South Africa.

CNT: Can you tell us how you have changed people's lives?