Fugees lawsuit: Pras Michél, Lauryn Hill trade barbs about scuttled tour
- Pras Michél of the Fugees accused former bandmate Lauryn Hill of taking advantage of his April 2023 criminal conviction to force an unfair contract for their tour.
- In response to his federal lawsuit, Hill alleged that Michél was “under duress because of his legal battles and that this was perhaps affecting his judgment, state of mind and character.”
Pras Michél is suing former bandmate Lauryn Hill in federal court for allegedly scuttling the Fugees’ U.S. comeback tour, which was called off abruptly last month. In turn, Hill accused him of taking advantage of her goodwill and accused him of being the one in breach of contract.
Michél, 51, a founding member of the Grammy-winning hip-hop group, accused the group’s frontwoman and her tour company, MLH Touring, of fraud and breach of contract, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday in the Southern District of New York. The rapper’s allegations include breach of fiduciary duty, unjust enrichment and refusal to permit an audit of the Fugees’ tour — a road show that the group truncated stateside due to “unforeseen circumstances.” (Hill later said the European leg would resume “as planned.”)
Lauryn Hill and the Fugees are no longer to set to perform in the U.S. this summer and fall.
He accused Hill of taking advantage of his April 2023 criminal conviction to force an unfair contract on him. Michél was found guilty on 10 counts related to multimillion-dollar political conspiracies spanning two presidencies; he faces up to 20 years in prison but is free ahead of sentencing.
“Betrayals are always sinister, but the closer the betrayer, the greater the evil,” said the introduction to Michél’s lawsuit, which was obtained Wednesday by The Times. “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. This is their tale of woe.”
Hill responded online to the filing, calling Michél’s lawsuit “baseless” and “full of false claims and unwarranted attacks.” In a statement to The Times, she also said that his complaint notably omitted that he was allegedly “advanced overpayment for the last tour” and failed to repay “substantial loans extended by myself as an act of goodwill.”
The Celebration Continues: The Miseducation Anniversary Tour was supposed to feature Hill and her Fugees bandmates Michél and Wyclef Jean performing music from the trio’s multi-platinum 1996 album, “The Score,” and from Hill’s Grammy-winning 1998 solo debut, “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill.”
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The 2024 tour was scheduled to begin last month in Tampa, Fla., and continue through mid-September, with a Sept. 17 stop planned for the Hollywood Bowl, where Hill brought a 20th-anniversary tour based on “Miseducation” in 2018. However, the group abruptly called off the tour three days before it was set to begin, with Hill suggesting that a sensationalized narrative about her had resulted in low ticket sales. In his lawsuit, Michél blamed Hill for “gross mismanagement” and for “dismal” ticket sales.
The group, which had disbanded for 15 years, first announced a reunion tour in 2021 and played a single date before canceling the tour because of what the group said were pandemic-related difficulties. Hill and the Fugees hit the road again in late 2023, but shuttered that outing too, with Hill citing “serious vocal strain.”
In his lawsuit, Michél is accusing Hill and MLH of grossly mismanaging the tour, including its setup, marketing, budgeting and payment of tour expenses, and blamed her for the tour’s “dismal” ticket sales. He also alleged that she secretly siphoned money from the tour advances paid to MLH under a 2023 tour agreement.
The complaint said she did so by “enlisting the unwitting aide” of her former husband, Jean, to put together a Fugees tour for the second half of 2023 using an independent live music concert promoter. He claimed that she secretly grabbed 40% of the tour guarantees and profits “off the top” for herself before accounting for Michél’s one-third cut.
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“Hill’s ploy to appear to be Michel’s supposed savior was actually a devious attempt to make a big score for herself by generating millions of dollars from a Fugees tour, all of which flowed to MLH,” Michél’s complaint said. “Even though she disingenuously billed the tour as a Lauryn Hill Miseducation tour, she knew that the kind of success she craved would only be possible if it were also billed as a Fugees tour.”
Michél alleged that Hill “swooped in to purportedly ‘save the day’ for Michel” after his legal woes. He said that due to his dire financial straits, he had no choice but to accept “onerous terms he would have normally rejected in the years before his criminal conviction.”
Those terms included ceding control of the Fugees tour to Hill and MLH and agreeing to license the “Fugees” trademark to MLH for live shows “for years to come — with or without Michel,” the complaint said. He also accused her of hiding “cooked” accounting books from him and financially defrauding him.
The musician also took other swipes at Hill, saying that it “would be an understatement to say that her early success ‘got to her head,’” accusing her of “narcissistic tendencies” when she tried to register a trademark for “The Fugees” for herself in 2021 and alleging that the first half of her 2023 solo tour relegated her to perform at small venues and “proved a commercial and creative failure.”
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“Not surprisingly, because of the gross mismanagement by Hill and MLH, who had taken far too long to close the deal with [concert promoter] Live Nation, the 2024 U.S. tour tickets sales were dismal,” the lawsuit said. “There was little or no marketing for the tour, and not enough time between the tour’s announcement and the first concert date to do sufficient advance sales.”
He also alleged that she spoiled the tour by showing up hours late and said that the tour’s real draw was the band’s reunion, not her. But, he said, Hill “nevertheless insisted on relegating ‘The Fugees’ billing to coequal or secondary status after her name.”
The lawsuit asks for a jury trial and is seeking a declaratory judgment to void the 2023 tour contracts and order an accounting of its finances. Michél is also seeking actual and punitive damages to be determined at trial.
Hill, 49, posted a statement Tuesday on Instagram responding to the lawsuit, alleging that Michél was “under duress because of his legal battles and that this was perhaps affecting his judgment, state of mind and character.”
The “Ex-Factor” singer said that the 25th anniversary tour of “Miseducation” was “being planned whether the Fugees were involved or not.” She said she expanded the tour to incorporate her former bandmates because she “found out that Pras was in trouble and would need money to aid his legal defense.”
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Michél, she alleged, was paid $3 million in advance of the tour to cover his legal fees. She and Jean allegedly deferred their full advances “to make sure he had what he needed and was able to go.”
She said she covered most of the tour expenses, because the majority of the tour advance had gone to Michél, and a repayment plan was put in place for him to pay back the advance. But, she said, Michél “has not paid back the money he was advanced, and is currently in breach of this agreement.”
She alleged that she absorbed most of the expenses herself, produced the show and put together the entire set, claiming that “Pras basically just had to show up and perform.”
“I am not in the business of kicking anyone, especially when they’re down, which is why I haven’t responded to date. It is absolutely disheartening to see Pras in this position, my band mate and someone I considered a friend,” she said.
“I was not in Pras’ life when he decided to make the unfortunate decision that lead [sic] to his current legal troubles. I did not advise that he make that decision and therefore am in no way responsible for his decision and it consequences though I have taken it upon myself to help. Despite his attacks, I am still compassionate and hope things work out for him.”
Times pop music critic Mikael Wood contributed to this report.
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