Lauryn Hill reunited with Fugees bandmate Wyclef Jean at Essence Festival in New Orleans this weekend.
Half an hour into Jean’s performance on Friday, Hill appeared on stage to help him storm through four classic Fugees songs, ‘Killing Me Softly’, ‘How Many Mics’, ‘Fu-Gee-La’, and ‘Ready or Not’, as reported by Stereogum.
The past 12 months have seen increased activity from Fugees, who announced a reunion tour in celebration of 25 years of their iconic album The Score in September 2021. However, after playing an eye-catching show in New York that month, it was announced in October that the run had been postponed due to Covid-19, with rescheduled dates yet to be announced.
In April this year, Hill released a statement supporting the Californian bill, the FAIR Act, with wants to repeal an amendment to the state’s ‘Seven-Year Statute’. This law means record labels can sue artists for damages if they leave the company after seven years, before fulfilling the required number of albums outlined in their contract.
“Artists can easily fall prey to the internal politics of business, someone inside simply not liking them, or bullying and intimidation and the attacks that come when someone resists that coercion,” Hill wrote. “Music is a most powerful medium. Often people want to influence the influencers and will top at nothing less than treachery to accomplish their goal. Greed often perverts the creative intentions of young dreamers who don’t realize they’re up against a system with a history of using and crushing people who don’t comply with their agenda.”
“No institution should be allowed the opportunity to control the market by controlling the output of a creative being for some ridiculous, indefinite period of time,” She continued. “This is not only unjust, it’s dangerous, and at its core a violation of the principles of free expression. Artists’ expressions are their voices, and an extension of their free speech and should not be contained, caught-up or controlled beyond a reasonable amount of time by an institution with the money and power to obstruct and deny someone’s output indefinitely.”
Check out Hill and Jean reuniting below.
