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 bill.
“Hill’s arrogance was again demonstrated when she unilaterally rejected a $5m offer [to play Coachella],” read the suit. “The reason was that her ego was bruised since the group No Doubt would be receiving top billing over The Fugees the night of their show. Hill never told Pras about the offer or that she had rejected it. Pras only learned about it when it was too late, after Hill, in an astonishing display of hubris, asked Pras if he would agree to perform a few Fugees songs for free as the opening act for her son, YG Marley, who was slated to perform at the same Coachella festival.”
Michél also went on to claim that the reunion tour was pitched by Hill after her solo tour failed. She allegedly needed both Michél and Wyclef Jean as a way to increase ticket sales. The suit claimed that she “realised that the only chance for her to perform at arena size venues and feed her insatiable ego would be to reunite”.
Lauryn Hill has yet to respond to the suit or any of its allegations.
Earlier this summer, Michél addressed the 2024 cancelled tour and said that his frustration about the situation came on behalf of the fans.
In an interview with Vulture, Pras said that he relates to the fans’ feeling of frustration and thinks that the band’s chequered past with touring – namely Hill’s reputation for showing up to shows hours late – may have impacted the poor sales.
“I was both surprised and not surprised,” Michel said of the ticket sales. “Last year, there were supposed to be 20 shows, and we did 10. They were all sold out, but 10 extra shows needed to be done that she [Hill] cancelled.”
He continued, explaining how that sense of disappointment may have carried over to this upcoming tour: “Now you put shows on sale this year, and people are like, How do we know this is not gonna be cancelled?
“The fans are saying, ‘It’s summertime, school’s about to come, I gotta buy supplies for my kids, there’s inflation.’ There’s so much you have to coordinate in your life. To go through that process for her to turn around and say, ‘Oops, cancelled.’”
Elsewhere, Hill has since returned to performing with a handful of shows across February, March and April of this year including a slot at Coachella.
