In late October, Wyclef Jean performed at Chelsea Music Hall, an intimate venue in New York City. The small setting might seem odd for a music icon; a prolific singer, writer and producer who’s won three Grammy Awards, has collaborated with everyone from Carlos Santana to Michael Jackson to Shakira, and whose nine solo albums have sold nearly nine million copies. But there was no place he would have rather been. 

The event, entitled Wyclef Goes Back to School, was a showcase for Jeremy Torres, Riley and Jazzy Amra, three up-and-coming artists with Heads Music, an independent label to which Wyclef recently signed. “My passion has always been artist development,” he tells us. “I was excited because Heads was an all-female company and the passion they had for upcoming artists was a different emotion than at a major label that just looks at the data and says, ‘Let’s sign this.’” 

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