(2 Oct 2024)
ASSOCIATED PRESS/INVISION
Inglewood, Calif. – 5 November 2023
1. STILL IMAGE: Prakazrel “Pras” Michel, left, and Lauryn Hill, of the Fugees, perform during the 25th anniversary tour for "The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill’ (Photo by Willy Sanjuan/Invision/AP)
2. STILL IMAGE: Prakazrel “Pras” Michel, from left, Lauryn Hill and Wyclef Jean, of the Fugees, perform during "The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill" 25th anniversary tour at the Kia Forum in Inglewood, Calif. (Photo by Willy Sanjuan/Invision/AP)
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Los Angeles – 30 June 2024
3. STILL IMAGE: Lauryn Hill performs during the BET Awards at the Peacock Theater. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Carthage, Tunisia – 21 July 2014
4. Medium Lauryn Hill performs "Killing Me Softly"
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Khanke, Iraq – 15 July 2015
5. Tracking of US music artist Prakazrel “Pras” Michel, walking through the Khanke camp followed by many IDPs
6. Medium Pras and his friend Azad Mardukhi sitting inside the tent speaking to Yazidi woman
7. Close up Pras
ASSOCIATED PRESS
New York – 4 September 1996
8. STILL IMAGE: The Fugees, and crew, arrive at New York’s Radio City Music Hall. (AP Photo/Wally Santana)
ASSOCIATED PRESS
New York – 4 September 1996
9. STILL IMAGE: The Fugees perform at the MTV Video Music Awards (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews)
STORYLINE:
Fugees rapper Pras sued his bandmate Lauryn Hill for fraud on Tuesday over the group’s shortened 2023 reunion tour, saying she took advantage of his criminal conviction to force an unfair contract on him.
The lawsuit filed in a federal court by Prakazrel “Pras” Michel, a founding member of the Fugees along with Hill and Wyclef Jean, alleges that Hill “swooped in” after his “unjust” verdict in a federal criminal conspiracy case, and he had no choice but to accept her onerous terms. And she proceeded to hide the books from him, financially defrauding and penalizing him, the lawsuit says.
The tour was presented as an anniversary celebration of Hill’s landmark 1998 album “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill,” and it was to include a reunion of the two-time Grammy-award winning Fugees, made up of Hill, Pras, and Wyclef Jean, The pioneering progressive hip-hop group is best known for its platinum-selling 1990s hits “Ready or Not,” “Killing Me Softly with His Song” and “Fu-Gee-La.”
“The Lord must have been off the day he paired Lauryn Hill with Wyclef Jean and Pras Michel, the plaintiff in this action, because the betrayal among the forged Fugees family has risen to Mythic proportions," the lawsuit says in a dramatic introduction. “This is their tale of woe.”
The lawsuit also alleges Hill spoiled the tour by showing up hours late, and says that the tour’s true draw was the reunion, not Hill, but she “nevertheless insisted on relegating ‘The Fugees’ billing to coequal or secondary status after her name. This was the first bitter pill Michel had to swallow.”
Hill called the lawsuit “baseless" with “false claims and unwarranted attacks,” in a statement to The Associated Press. She wrote that the lawsuit "notably omits that he was advanced overpayment for the last tour and has failed to repay substantial loans extended by myself as an act of goodwill,” totaling $3 million, putting him in breach of contract.
She added that the 2023 tour was put together as a solo celebration of her album, and it would have taken place with the Fugees or not.
===========================================================
Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork
Twitter: https://twitter.com/AP_Archive
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/APArchives
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/APNews/
You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/ecec104113724ff9895d3e7d9341acdb
Author: AP Archive
Go to Source
News post in October 7, 2024, 12:04 pm.
Visit Our Sponsor’s:
News Post In – News
