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Haitian-born hip-hop star Wyclef Jean, who was barred earlier this year from running for president, is releasing a new album called “If I Were President.
The six-song EP produced by Columbia Records will be available as of December 7 and includes a song called “Election Time,” Jean says on his blog.
Jean, a founding member The Fugees, announced in early August that he intended to run for Haiti in elections due to be held on November 28.
But Haiti’s electoral council barred him from running because he did not meet a residency requirement for candidates, who have to have lived for five consecutive years in the Caribbean island state.
Jean lives in the New York area but spent the first nine years of his life in Haiti.
His humanitarian Yele Haiti Foundation has played a prominent role in securing international aid for Haiti after an earthquake leveled much of the capital Port-au-Prince on January 12.
Even before the devastating earthquake, Jean traveled frequently to Haiti to defuse violence in gang-infested slums and help the most disadvantaged Haitians.
In “Election Time”, Jean says: “If I was president, the first thing I would do is get all them people out of them tents,” referring to the cities of canvas that are still home to hundreds of thousands of Haitians put on the street by the quake.
“Election Time” is not Jean’s first song about the Haitian election or the first in which he muses about being president.
After he was barred from running for president of Haiti, Jean released a song accusing Haitian President Rene Preval of sabotaging his presidential bid.
“I know all the cards are in your hands. I voted for you to be president in 2006, why today did you reject my candidacy?” the 40-year-old Jean sang in Haitian Creole.
