Hill: Some of them are recorded in very sparse ways. Part of it is I had to work through a lot. I had to work through that voice telling me, "People don't want to hear that. You ain't got no beat. Who do you think you are, playing that guitar?" I had to talk back to that voice and say, "You know what? Just because I have a guitar, it doesn't mean that changes me. I still rhyme, I still sing." The means that God gave me to express myself with right now — it's very freeing. I don't have to check with nobody. I can stop. I can pause. I can mess up. I can start again. I can go to another song. I can do anything.

Sway: How did you learn to play guitar? And why the guitar?

Hill: When I was still with the Fugees I would pick up the guitar, and I used to always say, "Wyclef, just get out there and do that thing with the guitar." When God shows you a thing, we always [try] to encourage others to do what we were meant to do. But over a period of time, He caused me to take it more seriously. He was just telling me, "Look, this is your accompaniment. Don't think it's going to be what you thought it was."

Sway: You were self-taught? You just strummed until you got it?

Hill: I don't know if I taught myself. I just evolved by way of necessity, by way of grace. Just grew, and grew and grew.

Sway: You're so different now, but a lot of people still want to know if there will be another Fugees album.

Hill: I don't have the answer to that one at all. I wouldn't try to put myself in a box or put God in a box. I just know where He has me right now is a brand new and totally refreshing place. I just feel good about being real. I hope that by people seeing the result of freedom that they'll want some, too. It was never about me. It was never about the person.

Sway: You seem at peace — it radiates throughout your entire performance.

Hill: You don't know how much artists go through to make it look so easy. It's all in the practice. There is no practice now. Reality is practice.

Sway: You made a comment about your voice being raspy. That doesn't concern you anymore?

Hill: It used to kill me, but not anymore. It got to the point where I was like, "Oh my God, it's reality." My voice being raspy doesn't change the words. I'm sorry that I can't run up the scale and back, but this ain't about me. It's about people receiving encouragement to jump that battery and start living. [RealVideo] None of us know how long we're going to be here.

Sway: You talked about a time in your life when you lost your creative juices. I believe you said it came after you wrote one of your new songs, "Rebel," which is about Amadou Diallo's murder.

Hill: It was initially written about the Diallo [murder], and that's when I realized I was very confused. There was a part when I was singing [the word] "rebel," and this part of me is afraid. This one voice was saying, "You can't say that." I was like, "Wait a minute, it's in me to say that." I think it's because I didn't understand the difference between rebellion against God and rebellion against the system that's not God. I'm a rebel in a sense that nobody's going to force me to do something against my will. What do I owe anybody that I should submit my will to them? I mean, I'm not a fool. God teaches me about reality, so when He tells me to do something, I do something, not because somebody told me to. It's because I'm led to.

Sway: Critics and the media might see a statement like that and say you're crazy and emotionally unstable.

Hill: That's OK. ... I don't know anybody that's not emotionally unstable or schizophrenic. People wake up, they have one mood, they have another mood. The only reason why it's looked at as crazy is because we have these images, these icons before us that are not reality. I'm saying, "Who told you that was the standard?"

Sway: When people view this and hear you speak, they are not going to necessarily follow what you are saying.

Hill: They don't have to, because everybody has a choice. There was one song in which I said, "Choose well." I am not here to shove my light down everybody's throat. The people who want it are the only people I am concerned about. For those who don't want it, I have nothing to defend.

Sway: Have you thought about what your first single might be from the album?