Pras has said he’s “done” with his former group, Fugees.
The rapper is currently facing 20 years in prison after he was found guilty of being involved in a billion-dollar Malaysian money laundering scheme. He was convicted on 10 counts including campaign finance violations, illegal lobbying, witness tampering, and lying to banks.
Now, as he awaits sentencing, Pras has reflected on his current legal troubles and friends who have abandoned him. Though he didn’t name Lauryn Hill and Wyclef Jean explicitly, he seemed to hint that his former bandmates have deserted him too.
“I’m done with that,” he told Variety. “They’re going to Europe [to tour]. I can’t go, so,” he added, referencing the bail conditions that currently prevent him from leaving the country. “It’s what it is.
“You can’t give people that kind of energy,” Pras continued. “So you could be frustrated, you could be disappointed, but I really believe in my path and in my journey, and I believe what’s mine, no one’s going to be able to take it away from me. So it’s better that you have a small group of people who really believe in you and believe in what you’re doing than to have 100 people around you, and the minute something happens — boom. People just disappear.”
The comments follow Pras’ lawsuit against Hill accusing her of fraud, which was filed last October. Shortly after Fugees quietly cancelled the US leg of their upcoming reunion tour three days before shows were supposed to begin, Pras sued Hill in a lawsuit filed in the Southern District of New York.
He claimed Hill sabotaged the tour with her “arrogance” and “narcissistic tendencies”, going on to allege that the group’s 2023 tour could have been a “huge commercial success” if it weren’t for Hill’s mismanagement, marketing and budgeting of the tour.
Pras went on to claim that Hill controlled the tour budget, which was apparently “bloated with unnecessary and, most likely fictitious expenses” in a “veiled and devious attempt to make a big score for herself.”
Hill has since responded to the allegations in a lengthy statement shared with NME, stating that “some clarity and facts need to be presented”. She called Pras’ lawsuit “baseless” and “full of false claims and unwarranted attacks”, claiming that it “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.”
The singer added that those loans stemmed from a planned ‘Miseducation of Lauryn Hill’ tour, which was then “expanded to incorporate the Fugees because I found out that Pras was in trouble and would need money to aid his legal defense.” Hill claimed Pras was “given a $3million advance… which he said he required to pay his legal fees.”
She added that she and Wyclef Jean then deferred their “full advances to make sure he had what he needed”. She continued: “I covered most of the tour expenses, as the majority of the tour advance had gone to Pras. An agreement was put in place to secure the repayment of the money he was advanced. Pras has not paid back the money he was advanced, and is currently in breach of this agreement.”
In other news, you can watch the moment Benedict Cumberbatch, FKA Twigs, Cate Blanchett, Taika Waititi, Richard Gadd, Marisa Abela, Ghetts, Idris Elba, Riz Ahmed and more all raved on stage with Wyclef Jean in London.