Lauryn Hill hasn’t release a studio album since 1998 but she’s managed to keep her name in headlines due her ongoing legal and financial woes.
The former Fugees frontwoman has remained low-key and fairly quiet about her tax troubles until now. Yesterday, Hill took to her Tumblr page to clear the air and let fans know of upcoming project.
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“I’ve remained silent, after an extensive healing process. This has been a 10+ year battle, for a long time played out behind closed doors, but now in front of the public eye. This is an old conflict between art and commerce… free minds, and minds that are perhaps overly tethered to structure,” she wrote.
But, despite the “battle,” she said she’s currently working on new music. “It has been reported that I signed a new record deal, and that I did this to pay taxes. Yes, I have recently entered into an agreement with Sony Worldwide Entertainment, to launch a new label, on which my new music will be released,” she wrote. “It took years for me to get out of the ‘parasitic’ dynamic of my youth, and into a deal that better reflects my true contribution as an artist, and (purportedly) gives me the control necessary to create a paradigm suitable for my needs.”
She went on to say that reports of a $1 million dollar record deal are false – actually, it’s for a lot more.
“The nature of my new business venture, as well as the dollar amount reported, was inaccurate, only a portion of the overall deal. Keep in mind, my past recordings have sold over 50,000,000 units worldwide, earning the label a tremendous amount of money (a fraction of which actually came to me). Only a completely complicated set of traps, manipulations, and inequitable business arrangements could put someone who has accomplished the things that I have, financially in need of anything,” she wrote. “I am one artist who finds value in openly discussing the dynamics within this industry that force artists to compromise or distort themselves and what they do, rather than allowing them to make the music that people need. There are volumes that could (and will) be said.”
Lauryn is currently facing criminal charges for failure to pay taxes in 2005, 2006, and 2007. Her sentencing date is scheduled for May 6.
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