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Lauryn Hill has been in the news plenty lately thanks to a pending sentence for tax evasion, which inadvertently revealed that she has a new record deal with Sony Music. Ms. Hill has issued a statement clarifying her new venture (it’s a label deal) that also partly comments on her legal and financial troubles, as well as her future plans.

The “Everything Is Everything” rapper/singer revealed that she has entered a deal with Sony Worldwide Entertainment to launch her own label. She has plans to release, and has been working on, a new album on said label.

Part of Hill’s self-imposed exile from the music industry was her disdain from its practices, which she has also pointed to as an explanation for not paying her taxes. But the irony getting back down with the machine, as well as earning a label millions upon millions of dollars with her only getting a relatively small bit of that loot, is not lost on her.

“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,” she wrote.

Hill is due back in front of the judge to find out her sentence on May 6. She is hoping for probation.

Read her full statement, which she dropped via Tumblr, below:

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.

Photo: AP