Pras Michelle, a founding member of the Grammy-winning hip-hop group The Fugees, is facing fraud and breach of contract charges against bandmate Lauryn Hill over a tour that was shortened to 2023 and canceled a year later. is being sued in federal court.
In a scathing lawsuit filed Tuesday in the Southern District of New York, Michelle alleges that Hill grossly mismanaged the set-up, marketing and budget for his canceled 2023 tour, saying, “In fact, he “It was a veiled and sinister attempt to achieve greatness for himself,” the complaint states, adding that the singer then secretly siphoned money from the tour deposit. The full list of charges includes fraud, fraud in solicitation, breach of fiduciary duty, breach of contract, accounting violations, and denial of permission to audit the Fugees tour.
The suit alleges that the Fugees’ 2023 tour “should have been a huge commercial success, as most of the performances on the arena-sized tour were sold out in advance.” However, with Hill controlling the tour budget, Michelle returned empty-handed. “It appeared designed to lose money as it was inflated with unnecessary and probably fictitious expenses.” Additionally, the tour was cut short in November 2023 when Hill suddenly and unilaterally canceled the second half, citing “severe vocal strain.”
The lawsuit depicts Hill as a wolf in sheep’s clothing with “narcissistic tendencies,” including a $5 million offer to perform with the Fugees at this year’s Coachella and a snub at the festival. It also includes an interesting anecdote about how she refused the offer because she felt she was being treated like one. There are questions at the top of the bill.
“Hill’s arrogance was once again demonstrated when he unilaterally rejected a $5 million offer[to perform at Coachella]because the group ‘No Doubt’ had more money than The Fugees on the night of the show.” “This was because her ego was hurt because she would receive a large salary,” the lawsuit states. “Hill never told Plath about the offer or that it had been rejected. Plath found out about it too late, and in a surprising display of arrogance, Hill told Plath that her son’s… YG” after asking if he would agree to play some Fugees songs for free as Marley’s opening act. They are scheduled to perform at the same Coachella festival. ”
The group was formed in South Orange, New Jersey in the late 1980s with Wyclef Jean and was called one of the most influential hip-hop acts of the 1990s, selling more than 22 million records worldwide. Their final album, The Score, released in 1996, was certified seven times platinum by the RIAA.
Hill, upset over the failure of his solo tour, first pitched the idea of reuniting the Fugees in spring 2023 to Wyclef Jean, and then pitched it to Michelle, according to the complaint. She “realized that her only chance to perform in arena-sized venues and feed her insatiable ego was to reunite with Michelle and Jean and promote their 25th anniversary tour as the ‘Fugees’ tour,” the complaint states. It is stated in
Hill took advantage of Michelle’s precarious situation because she needed money due to mounting legal costs, the complaint alleges. At the time, Michelle was named as a co-defendant of “Wolf of Wall Street” financier Jho Low, who is accused of stealing $4.5 billion from Malaysian sovereigns, and was in the middle of a four-year legal battle with the U.S. Department of Justice. It was. The world’s largest financial scandal involving a wealth fund known as 1MDB. Low is currently on the run and is believed to be living in China to avoid justice, but Michelle was arrested in April 2023 on charges of violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act and acting as a Chinese agent. was convicted. (Michelle is accused of involvement in a grand theft that cost eight figures per pop and was used to fund lavish Hollywood parties that attracted the likes of Leonardo DiCaprio and Paris Hilton.) I never did.)
But Hill’s abruptly canceled 2023 Fugees tour did little to cover Michelle’s legal costs, with “Hill taking 40% of the tour’s deposit and tour net profits ‘out of tour expenses.’ As a result, the company was left with nearly $1 million in unrecovered costs. “The ‘top’ will be given to himself, and the remaining 60% will be divided equally between Hill, Plath, and Wyclef,” the lawsuit states. It wasn’t until this year that Michel and his agent learned how it worked.
Earlier this year, Hill reportedly signed a new contract with Live Nation for the Fugees’ 18-date U.S. tour, scheduled for August 2024. She never disclosed the terms of the agreement to Michelle, according to the complaint. Ticket sales were disastrous, with Michelle blaming Hill for “taking too long to get a deal with Live Nation (and) with little to no marketing for the tour, and the first concert after the announcement.” “There wasn’t enough time until the day of.” Have enough pre-sales to justify the tour. ”
As a result, Live Nation canceled their U.S. tour in August, sparking speculation as to what really killed off the highly anticipated tour. At the time, Hill blamed the media. She issued the following statement: “Last year, I suffered an injury that required some shows to be rescheduled. Unfortunately, some media’s sensationalist tendencies and clickbait headlines have led to tickets for the North American portion of the tour. It seems like it created a story that affected sales.”
The suit also alleges that Hill “tarnished the Fugees brand” by “habitually arriving two to three hours late for shows.” Hill continues to receive complaints from fans about his chronic tardiness. Just this week, the singer reportedly took to the stage for a show in Nairobi, Kenya, more than four hours late.
The Fugees are not the only music act currently embroiled in legal infighting. Hall & Oates founders Darryl Hall and John Oates are fighting in confidential arbitration over the sale of their business partnership.
