Lauryn Hill sued for fraud by Fugees co-member Pras Michél over cancelled tour

nme.com:

Lauryn Hill has been sued for fraud by her Fugees co-member Pras Michél over their cancelled 2024 world tour.Hill and The Fugees were scheduled to kick off their world tour back in August in Tampa, Florida, and would continue their trek of the United States until September 21, before touring the UK and Europe in October.However, just three days before the first scheduled show, the band quietly cancelled the US leg of the tour without any official explanation.

Hill would later go on to blame the media’s “sensationalism” around previous shows being cancelled for the low ticket sales (via Stereogum).Now, Michél, who co-founded the Fugees in 1990, has claimed that their comeback tour was sabotaged by Hill’s “arrogance” and “narcissistic tendencies”.

According to a lawsuit filed in the Southern District of New York today (October 1) and obtained by Variety, Michél alleged that the group’s 2023 tour would have been “a huge commercial success” given advance sales but Hill had grossly mismanaged the setup, marketing and budgeting of the tour and claimed it “was actually a veiled and devious attempt to make a big score for herself.”He then went on to claim that the singer controlled the tour budget which he alleged was “bloated with unnecessary and, most likely fictitious expenses”.

He described it as Hill’s “veiled and devious” attempt to make money for herself, refusing an audit.According to the complaint, some of the Fugees’ 2023 dates were postponed due to Hill’s “serious vocal strain” and the 2024 tour was aborted due to “gross mismanagement”.It also claimed that the trio were offered $5million to play Coachella but Hill allegedly turned down the offer after learning that they would not be placed higher up on the festival’s.