Pras Michel, a member of the Fugees, has given his reasons for releasing a diss track directed at Lauryn Hill after canceling an aspect of her world tour due to low ticket sales.
According to the rapper, his hard-hitting track Bar Mitzfa was not meant as a diss on his Fugees music group member Lauryn Hill but for his frustrated fans who were greatly shocked over the cancellation of their highly anticipated reunion tour.
“You’re family, you have internal disagreements, but it’s not going to be on a level where I’m dissing her — that doesn’t make any sense,” Pras stated.
The song was released following the cancellation of the group’s scheduled tour commemorating the 25th anniversary of Lauryn Hill’s groundbreaking debut solo album, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, just before its August 9 scheduled start date. Hill blamed the cancellations on “sensationalism” by the media for the previous low ticket sales.
“Artistically speaking, sometimes we say things because that’s how we express ourselves. This track is me speaking my truth. When I was writing the record, those lines just came out. That was actually the last bars that came: ‘Don’t blame me, blame her, she made the mess.’ It sounded hot! I needed something to rhyme with mess, and I was like, Damn, do I put [third Fugees member] Wyclef in this?,” Pras quizzed.
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“They are paying their hard-earned money to see you. For example, we did Global Citizen in 2021 and they were gracious enough to let us play at another location because they knew that Lauryn could be late and it’s live. They were like, go film it and then we’ll just inject it into whatever segment of the show that we’re projecting. She was three hours late. It was raining. We had fans whose cars were getting towed. The mayor had to reimburse some of the towing. He’s a fan of the Fugees too; he felt bad… We’re going on almost three decades of our existence, individually and as a group. To have people still interested in wanting to come see you, man, you have to be grateful,” he added.
Despite the fact that Hill has a history of showing up to concerts late and canceling them without warning, Pras stated that there is definitely “magic” when the three of them take the stage. The group has been together for three decades.
After the 20 shows the reformed trio was supposed to do in 2023 were cut down to 10, Pras expressed his astonishment and disbelief that the tour was called off. Hill had previously announced that she was having voice problems, thus the 21-date Miseducation Anniversary Tour was postponed in November.
Speaking about the group’s relationship off stage, Pras described himself as the “Bobby Brown of the group” and added that they talk “sometimes.” He mentioned that although they all speak on WhatsApp, he speaks with Wyclef Jean more often than with Hill.
