Lauryn Hill is being sued by Fugees bandmate Pras Michél for fraud and breach of contract. The complaint, filed yesterday in the Southern District of New York, comes after the Fugees shortened their 2023 tour and canceled all dates scheduled for 2024.
The two members had expressed different opinions on the reason for this cancellation: if Lauryn Hill had attributed the main reasons for the few tickets sold to “media sensationalism and click-bait headlines”, Pras had pointed the finger at her bandmate and her unpredictable attitudes. «People have been asking themselves: “How do I know that the concerts won't be cancelled?”, with these words Pras had shared his doubts about Lauryn Hill before publicly blaming her in Bar Mitzfathe one that was perceived as a diss track but which the artist downplayed thus: «We are a family, there are disagreements, but it's not like I'm going to diss it. It's the way we artists express ourselves.”
But today, very little remains of this family. In the complaint filed by Pras, Lauryn is accused of having inflated the budget with “unnecessary and, most likely, fictitious expenses” in a “veiled and subtle” attempt to gain personal profit. «Lauryn Hill's arrogance was demonstrated again when she unilaterally rejected an offer of $5 million [per suonare al Coachella]», we read in the documents. “The reason was that his ego was hurt that No Doubt would earn more than the Fugees.” He continues: «Hill never told Pras about the offer, nor that he had rejected it. Pras only found out about this when it was too late, after Hill, in a stunning display of arrogance, asked Pras if he would agree to perform some Fugees songs for free as an opener for his son, YG Marley, who was supposed to perform at the same festival.” To then conclude, returning to talk about the reason that would have pushed Hill to a reunion: «She realized that the only possibility of performing in arenas and feeding her insatiable ego would be to reunite in a new group».
Ms. Hill's response was not long in coming. With a document divided into 7 “facts”, the artist responded to what now definitively seems like a former bandmate. First, Hill calls the complaint “baseless” and “full of false claims and unwarranted attacks.” Pras would in fact have “failed to have received an exaggerated advance for the tour” by not returning to the singer the “substantial loans granted by me as an act of good will”. There is talk of a figure of 3 million dollars to allow Pras to pay the legal costs (here to find out more, ed.): «Wyclef and I took no advances to secure that money for Pras. I personally covered the main expenses of the tour and most of Pras' advance. We had an agreement that the advance money would then be returned, which did not happen.”
On the reunion: «Last year's tour was planned to celebrate 25 years of The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill and it would have been there with or without the Fugees.” A theme that the singer is keen to underline: «All the Fugees' production was that of my tour, Pras basically just had to show up and perform». And again: «The tour was extended to include the Fugees because I discovered Pras was in trouble and needed money for his legal defenses».
The last 3 “facts” present in the document instead move to the personal sphere. “He thanked me for saving his life,” Ms. Hill recalls before addressing Pras's legal problems: “I was not in Pras's life when he made those unfortunate decisions that led to his current legal problems. I gave him no advice and am in no way responsible for his decisions and the consequences he now faces. Despite his attacks, I hope that things will work out for him.”
The press office of the Pras Michél legal team responded to Lauryn Hill's document: «What Lauryn Hill says is categorically false. If she was so responsible in managing the tour, why didn't she send an expense report to Pras? Why did you refuse him the chance to inspect his books and records? Where did the eight-figure advance Mammoth received go? And above all, why didn't he address the fact that he had tarnished the Fugees brand with his chronic delays?”. Lauryn Hill's lawyers instead called the complaint “desperate and full of lies and intentionally disparaging comments.”
