Haitian-American rapper and producer Wyclef Jean says he never made any money from his Fugees hit “Killing Me Softly With His Song” with Lauryn Hill due to it being a cover of Roberta Flack’s 1973 song “Killing Me Softly.” Speaking in an interview with Anthony Miller of ER aired on Friday, January 4, the “Purpose” author stated that his ignorance of the business of music licensing made him miss out on top dollar generated from exploration of the 3x Platinum song.
“The way that I learned the power of licensing started on this album I did called ‘The Score’ with the Fugees, right. When I did this album, I was sampling a lot, and I remember Lauryn came, and Lauryn was like, ‘I want to do this Roberta Flack record. We do this, and it’s a remake of ‘Killing Me Softly.’ This record sells gazillion copies, but we were not the publishers of this song, so that means that the licensor was the one chilling at home and making the money. For me today, I am on the other side of the fence, and I wanna get more kids on the other side of the fence,” he explained.
“Killing Me Softly” is a composition by Charles Fox with lyrics by Norman Gimbel, co-written with Lori Lieberman, inspired by a Don McLean performance in late 1971. Lieberman’s 1972 release did not chart, but in 1973, Roberta Flack’s rendition became a global hit, winning the Grammy for Record of the Year. In 1996, Fugees’ cover, featuring Lauryn Hill, peaked at number-one in twenty countries, earning the Grammy for Best R&B Performance. The Fugees’ success prompted a 1996 remix of Flack’s version, topping the Hot Dance Club Play chart. Lieberman, initially denied writing credit, later confirmed her influential role.
Flack’s 1972 recording was remixed in 1996 by Jonathan Peters, gaining dance chart success. Both Fugees and Flack have performed the song together.
Driven by the success “Killing Me Softly,” The Fugees sophomore album “The Score,” debuted at No. 12 on the Billboard 200 albums chart and was selling 200,000 copies a week two months after its release which was rare for rap albums at the time.
Despite decades of confirmation, Fox and Gimbel later downplayed Lieberman’s contribution, leading to legal disputes. The Lieberman/Gimbel/Fox collaboration turned sour in 1976, resulting in legal battles and career repercussions for Lieberman. In 2020, Lieberman emphasized the correct origin of the song without seeking credit or financial gain.
The resurgence of “Killing Me Softly” carries over into the 2020 TikTok era, with artists like French Montana, Baby Keem, and Mariah Carey sampling it. The latter being on Columbia Records, the same label as The Fugees in the 1990s. Billboard ranked “Killing Me Softly With His Song” one of their “500 Best Pop Songs of All Time” in October 2023. Additionally, Fugees recorded a dancehall version with Bounty Killer, but it was not released on “The Score.”
During Wyclef’s interview he also mentioned that he launched a music licensing platform that connects independent artists and their music to streaming services and get music in television and cable shows as well as different products.
“We have a platform that we started called SOLO; it’s a low-tier licensing company for composers that are on the come up. Our clients are Showtime, iTunes, Hulu, I can keep going on and on. Along with the license is how we create different avenues to give kids three or four ways to make money at a time,” he said.
The 54 year old hip hop producer says although he made a lot of mistakes, he managed to recover and he would like to share some of what he has learned with Jamaican youth. “I have been making money since I was 19, 20, I have made mistakes along the way, but I have leveled off well. At the end of the day, I’d like to see more youth level off,” Clef explained.
Wyclef has collaborated with Bounty Killer, Beres Hammond, Beenie Man, Elephant Man and other Jamaican artists in the past and he is scheduled to speak at the Island Music Conference (IMC) in Kingston, happened February 21-25, and he is already making a call, especially to the young artists in Jamaica, to come see him at the conference if they want to make money.
He also explained why Afrobeats has become so popular and reggae’s influence on the genre.
“When you had the Beenie’s and the Bounty’s that were killing it, some kids in Africa are getting all of this music from Jamaica, and the music is registering to him in a different way. He is hearing it differently. Even if you speak to a Burna Boy, he is gonna tell you he’s naturally influenced by what’s going on in Jamaica,” Clef said.
“Understand this, the power of Jamaican music ain’t going nowhere; what it does is it spreads and takes on a different form. At the end of the day, the biggest artist in the world, period till today, is, ain’t no cap, Bob Marley,” he asserted.
