*By Michael Teich*
Music artist and producer Wyclef Jean is a three-time Grammy winner, cannabis entrepreneur, and a former presidential candidate of Haiti.
Now, he's looking to create the world's first hip-hop guitar.
"It's a whole new instrument," Jean said Wednesday in an interview on Cheddar. "It's software-based with actually real strings."
When Jean isn't piloting his latest projects, he's acting as a mentor for up-and-coming artists. The music mogul recently partnered with Fiverr, a digital marketplace for freelancers, and will offer his advice to users of the company's new platform, Fiverr Pro Music and Audio.
Freelancing is a delicate balance –– one that many Americans are forced to strike in a gig economy. A recent study from the [Department of Labor](https://www.bls.gov/news.release/conemp.nr0.htm) found that 10.1 percent of workers earn their keep in "alternative environments," like temp agencies or freelance industries.
And the music business isn't exactly hospitable: In 2017, recording artists only earned [12 percent](https://www.businessinsider.com/musicians-received-12-percent-43-billion-generated-by-music-industry-study-2018-8?utm_source=reddit.com) of the income produced by the industry, a marginal piece of a $43 billion market in the U.S.
His latest partnership with Fiverr allows Jean to help artists and enter a classroom, albeit a virtual one.
“If I wasn’t going to be famous, I was going to be a teacher.”
For more on this story, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/wyclef-jean-2).
President Donald Trump wants his “big, beautiful” bill of tax breaks and spending cuts on his desk to be singed into law by Independence Day. And he’s pushing the slow-rolling Senate to make it happen sooner rather than later. Trump met with Senate Majority Leader John Thune at the White House early this week and has been dialing senators for one-on-one chats, using both the carrot and stick to encourage them to act. But it’s still a long road ahead for the bill. Senators want to make changes to protect Medicaid and to make sure some tax breaks become permanent. Elon Musk called the whole bill a "disgusting abomination.”
