Wyclef Jean may be busy promoting his latest solo effort, The Ecleftic: 2 Sides II a Book, but he took some time out Tuesday to give a court deposition in Morristown, N.J. Wyclef testified in regard to a lawsuit filed in late 1998 against fellow Fugee Lauryn Hill by four people who claim to have co-produced her multi-platinum solo debut, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill.

The depositions in this and all legal matters are closed to the public, but if you want a hint on the direction Jean's testimony might take, look no further than The Ecleftic. On the track "Where Fugees At?" Jean raps, "You're wicked/Stop lying to the public/You wanted it so bad you took all the production credit."

Since the suit was filed, Hill, who was deposed in a Newark U.S. District Court in June and may be again in the coming weeks, has been somewhat tight-lipped. She even hired a separate PR firm to handle inquiries about the lawsuit. Charles Ortner, one of Hill's attorneys handling the matter, was in a meeting and could not come to the phone when RollingStone.com contacted him.

"These guys aren't some guys off the street who have concocted some story trying to make money off Lauryn," says Peter Harvey, the New Jersey-based attorney for the plaintiffs. "A lot of people saw them create the music." According to the fifty-page complaint filed in U.S. District Court, Vada Nobles, Rasheem Pugh, Tejumold and Johari Newton worked on arranging and producing all the cuts on Miseducation. They have requested partial writing credit on thirteen of the fourteen original album tracks, with percentages specified in the complaint. Also named in the complaint are Suzette Williams and Jayson Jackson (who are part of Hill's management team), Ruff Nation Records, Columbia Records, Sony Music Entertainment and Sony/ATV Tunes.

"Don't get me wrong," says Nobles. "[Hill is] a talented, blessed person, [but] she's claiming that's just her on that whole album. That's not true."

Nobles and Pugh have gone on to produce tracks for LL Cool J, as well music for Jamie Foxx's new movie Bait.

CLAUDIA PERRY
(September 20, 2000)