Lauryn Hill Settles Lawsuit

More than two years after filing a fifty-page lawsuit in a U.S. District Court in Newark, New Jersey, plaintiffs Vada Nobles, Rasheem Pugh, Tejumold and Johari Newton have received an undisclosed settlement from defendants Grammy winner Lauryn Hill and members of her management team and record label.

The four musicians claimed in the suit that they worked on arranging and producing all the cuts on Hill's Grammy-winning solo debut, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, and requested partial writing credit on thirteen of the fourteen original tracks on the album, with percentages specified in the suit.

While Hill's spokesman at Columbia Records confirmed that a settlement had been reached, he said the terms are undisclosed, which is typical in such cases.

This does not mean the end of Hill's courtroom days, however. Bassist Vere Isaac, who worked on the "A Rose Is a Rose" sessions with Hill and Aretha Franklin, filed suit against Hill last year in the Seventh District Court in New York. Isaac states in his complaint that he wrote the melody for the hit single. Isaac has retained Peter Harvey -- who represented Nobles, Pugh and the Newtons -- as counsel.

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Song Stories

“Time to Pretend”

MGMT | 2008

Listening to MGMT’s breakthrough song, one might interpret it as being about the excesses of rock stardom, but it’s actually about the duo’s pet praying mantis. Ben Goldwasser and Andrew VanWyngarden told Rolling Stone they got the idea from the insect's jerky movements. The mantis died, but the two bandmates kept the egg sack and allowed the hundreds of eggs to hatch. “We tried to name them all, but they died after a day,” said Goldwasser, with VanWyngarden chiming in, “But the praying mantis dance inspired us.”

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