!! OMG, Ready or Not: The Missrepresentation of Lauryn Hill !!

From that moment in Sister Act 2 when Sister Mary Clarence looks at Lauryn Hill like “bitch what the hell are you doing out there come back in this classroom and sing bitch please” and then it cuts to her doing a secret sing of ‘His Eye Is On The Sparrow’ with that Kelly Rowland-esque MUSHROOM BOWL-CUT SISTER who’s like “the spaaaaroooow MHMMM, it’s that part every time”, that was when I knew [once I’d stopped bawling from the sound of brown angels sing-songing] that I wanted to hear more Lauryn.
Having been much out of the spotlight of recent, apart from some such racist accusations and some hobo-chic overdressed appearances, Miss Lauryn Hill popped up last week as reports of her tax evasion court trials hit the press.
Miss Hill then ‘tumblie wumblied’ that she felt she had been misrepresented, and to confirm that she had indeed “entered into an agreement with Sony…to launch a new label, on which [her] new music will be released.”
You can read her full statement after the jump, as well as said piano sister-act [culminating in some severe side-eye, OVER GINGER-YONDER], and we at omg cannot wait to hear her “Fu-gee-lalalaaaaa” all over again.

“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. And yes, I am working on new music.
 
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. This is about inequity, and the resulting disenfranchisement caused by it. I’ve been fighting for existential and economic freedom, which means the freedom to create and live without someone threatening, controlling, and/or manipulating the art and the artist, by tying the purse strings.
 
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. I have been working towards this for a long time, not just because of my current legal situation, but because I am an artist, I love to create, and I need the proper platform to do so.
 
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. 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.
 
MLH”

[via bullett]