Pras Appears To Say He’s ‘Done With’ The Fugees In First Interview Since Conviction

Pras Michel appears to be fully distancing himself from The Fugees in his first interview since being convicted of criminal conspiracy charges in a multibillion-dollar financial fraud case.

Speaking to Variety as he awaits sentencing – where he faces 22 years – Pras addressed the friends he has says abandoned him amid his legal troubles, and though he doesn’t name Wyclef Jean or Ms. Lauryn Hill, it’s pretty evident he’s discussing his former groupmates.

“I’m done with that. They’re going to Europe [to tour]. I can’t go, so,” he said. “It’s what it is. You can’t give people that kind of energy. 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.”

His stance was made quite clear in a lawsuit last month as well, when Pras sued Lauryn for alleged fraud and breach of contract over their canceled reunion tour.

The suit accuses Hill of fraud, fraud in the inducement, breach of fiduciary duty, breach of contract, accounting and refusal to permit an audit of the Fugees’ tour, among other things.

Hill, in a statement, called the suit “baseless” and said it was “full of false claims and unwarranted attacks.”

Michel claimed that Hill mismanaged aspects of their canceled 2023 tour, which included failed attempts at setup, marketing and budgeting. The suit said the run “was actually a veiled and devious attempt to make a big score for herself.”

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The suit added that the tour should have been: “a huge commercial success, since most of shows for the entire arena size tour were sold out in advance.” Michel claimed he received no money from the shows because the budget “was so bloated with unnecessary and, most likely fictitious, expenses, that it seemed designed to lose money.” Hill eventually canceled the tour due to “serious vocal strain.”

Hill, in response, claimed that Pras was actually overpaid for the tour.

Pras was convicted back in April for his role in a failed conspiracy to help Malaysian businessman Jho Low and the Chinese government gain access to US officials, including Barack Obama and Donald Trump. The “Ghetto Superstar” rapper was found guilty on 10 counts, including conspiracy to defraud the U.S., witness tampering and acting as an unregistered agent of a foreign government. He faces up to 22 years in prison.

Just a few months after conviction, Pras began working toward bringing his case back to life on grounds of his ex-attorney apparently messing up “the single most important portion” of his defense by using generative AI to put together a closing statement.