An album like The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, released in 1998, is a hard act to follow. Even for the artist herself.
The singer’s debut solo album sold 422 624 copies in its first week and went on to sell over 19-million copies worldwide – earning the former Fugees member five Grammy Awards.
Hill speeds through rhymes on Neurotic Society, which she released on her Tumblr over the weekend.
Neurotic Society has the sound of an underground hip-hop song with fast-paced lyrics about the singer’s observations on popular culture and the state of society.
But the production on the single is rather disappointing and sounds rushed. Clearly this is something even Hill realises as she put out a disclaimer with her song, which read: “Here is a link to a piece that I was ‘required’ to release immediately, by virtue of the impending legal deadline. I love being able to reach people directly, but in an ideal scenario, I would not have to rush the release of new music … but the message is still there. In light of Wednesday’s tragic loss [of former label mate Chris Kelly], I am even more pressed to YELL this to a multitude that may not understand the cost of allowing today’s unhealthy paradigms to remain unchecked!”
The singer had to release five new songs and an album within a stipulated time according to the contract she signed with the record label.
It is not entirely clear whether Hill was compelled to release the song, either by her new label, her legal woes, or both. It seems that the paradigms Hill refers to continue to be a stumbling block for her.
The Everything Is Everything singer pleaded guilty in 2012 for failing to report income of more than $1.8-million between 2005 and 2007.
The singer said that she didn’t pay her taxes because she was protecting her family. She claimed that paying income taxes would have placed her and her family in danger and said she had to go into hiding in order to save her family.
Hill paid her taxes
Legal documents filed by the singer revealed that she stopped paying taxes after she "withdrew from society at large due to what she perceived as manipulation and very real threats to herself and her family".
This week Hill paid her taxes on the eve of her sentencing in a federal tax evasion case, her lawyer told Reuters.
Hill faces up to a year in jail for each charge, but the final sentence is expected to be adjusted based on her repayment of the money. She owed at least $504 000 in federal back taxes as well as state taxes and penalties that brought the estimated total to more than $900 000.
"Ms Hill has not only now fully paid prior to sentencing her taxes, which are part of her criminal restitution, but she has additionally fully paid her federal and state personal taxes for the entire period under examination through 2009," her attorney, Nathan Hochman, said.
Recently, rumours surfaced that the singer signed the deal with Sony Music in order to help her avoid prison time for her missed tax returns. She wrote that she will be launching a new label through Sony to release her new music but called media reports on the nature of the deal and how much she was earning “inaccurate".
“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.”
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