As a longtime fan who has followed Lauryn Hill’s career since her groundbreaking debut with The Fugees, it’s disheartening to see such a bitter dispute among bandmates that has resulted in legal action. Pras Michel‘s accusations of fraud and breach of contract against Lauryn Hill are troubling, especially given their shared history of creating iconic music together.
Prakazrel “Pras” Michel, a former bandmate of Lauryn Hill in the Fugees, has filed a lawsuit claiming that Hill defrauded him and breached their contract by not fairly distributing the earnings from last year’s Fugees tour.
In a court case initiated on Tuesday in New York’s federal court, Michel claims that Hill unlawfully pocketed 40% of the tour earnings as an initial payment before sharing the remaining amount. He demands compensation yet to be determined and wants the judge to void the contracts he agreed to for participating in Hill’s compact 2023 tour. These contracts, according to him, unfairly transferred some of his creative rights and future royalties from the Fugees’ artistic projects.
The grievance was lodged following Hill and Wyclef Jean’s decision to proceed with their European tour arrangements, after the North American shows were abruptly called off due to weak ticket demand just before they were set to begin. The document outlines a disagreement between Hill and Michel, who will not be participating in the tour with his fellow band members.
In 2023, Lauryn Hill declared a solo concert tour to celebrate the 25th anniversary of her Grammy-winning album titled “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill“. Later on in the year, she proposed the idea of rejoining the Fugees during this tour.
During that period, Michel was facing accusations by the government that he orchestrated a vast conspiracy, channeling funds from Malaysian financier Low Taek Jho to a group of fake donors for the purpose of making illegal campaign contributions to Barack Obama in 2012. Despite turning down a plea bargain, he was convicted last year for his part in embezzling approximately $4.5 billion from Malaysia’s state-managed investment fund.
Michel consented to accompany Hill on the tour to support efforts aimed at reversing his conviction. He was given an advance payment based on a third of the anticipated earnings from the tour, and agreed to terms that were typically unacceptable to him, such as handing over creative control of the tour to Hill and granting permission to use the group’s trademark for future live performances, even if he was not part of them, according to the court case.
According to Michel, under the contract, the group was supposed to divide a $750,000 payment evenly for each performance. However, Michel claims that later on, he discovered that MLH, Hill’s company handling the tour, received approximately $1.26 million. He argues that they did not inform him that the accounting for the 2023 Fugees Tour was structured in a way that allowed Hill and MLH to take 40% of the tour guarantees and profits before calculating Michel’s 1/3 share.
Consequently, Michel claims that due to the supposed deception, he was coerced into signing contracts that he wouldn’t have agreed to if he’d known the real facts. These contracts covered aspects like control over future artistic works, such as recording sessions, ownership of recording projects, and live performances.
Furthermore, the legal action accuses Hill of being responsible for the failed 2024 North American tour, which was scrapped due to weak ticket demand. Earlier this year, Hill entered into a contract with Live Nation for an 18-show Fugees tour, set to commence in August. However, Live Nation consented to promote the tour only if Jean and Michel joined Hill on stage as the Fugees, alleges the lawsuit.
The negotiations hit a snag when Michel was informed by Hill’s managers that he hadn’t repaid close to a million dollars because he didn’t make enough from the 2023 tour, thus revealing an unfair division of profits, according to the lawsuit. However, they eventually came to terms on a deal that gave Michel another advance for his legal expenses, but Live Nation allegedly struggled to effectively promote the tour, leading to insufficient ticket sales, claims the lawsuit. The document also criticizes Hill for unilaterally refusing a $5 million offer for the group to perform at Coachella.
In a statement, Robert Meloni, attorney for Michel, asserted that Kyla Hill took advantage of Michel’s vulnerable legal position and tricked him into an unbalanced contract for The Fugees’ 2023 reunion tour. He highlighted that Hill falsified crucial financial details and hid her plan to claim a disproportionate 60% share of the tour earnings, while Michel was left with just 20%, which is significantly lower than the usual one-third split among the group members.
Read More
Sorry. No data so far.
2024-10-02 01:54