Lauryn Hill

granted most of them don't say that while hundreds of thousands of dollars in residuals and royalties are coming in, and they're singing over footage of CGI penguins.

she deserves a "B" at obfuscatory bullshit at best

she is actually in jail now :(

::tiny violin for multi-millionaires who don't pay taxes::

It could all be so simple

Just pay your damn taxes. What's so hard about that?

Good, fuck off.

Utterly tedious human being

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=biHJ6S91xBY

:(

I actually have super huge sympathy for her. "Just pay your taxes" is an easy thing to say if you're getting pay stubs, but when you're talking about 300 contracts a year, tiny paycheques from disparate sources, big money in but big expenses, I have nothing but sympathy for this woman

Well, I think that's where the "get an accountant" criticism comes in tbh

It's so much more complicated than that.

I got three years behind. In 2009 I had to file in 14 countries. I had the government taxing me on several contracts that hadn't been settled or were in dispute. Every accountant I talked to was "you have to take care of this yourself, I have no idea where ever to start".

well presumably SOME accountant knows how to do that stuff, and one would think that LH is the type of person who could afford said accountant

When I finally filed 2009 (last year), was audited on it (and passed with flying colours), the tax agency took a look at my money in and assessed me for 2010 and 2011, but of course, didn't factor in the expenses (paying my employees, flights and accommodations, etc.) and I suddenly got a bill for more than a quarter-million dollars. "It's not up to us to provide you with expenses". Look in my bank account, I said, this assessment is crazy. I might possess a tenth of that. "When you owe us more than 250K," they continued, "we move ahead with legal action." It was Brazilian. It took me two months of solid bookkeeping for each year I was behind. I can't even imagine how fucked Lauryn must've been but I don't think it's as simple as "lazy, crazy Lauryn Hill, behind on her taxes? tsk tsk tsk"

The taxation system is really well designed for people with single or dual occupations but it's really fucking tough for people who're trying to collect on 300+ contracts a year. I mean, I don't know, maybe the woman is a crook, but the number of people who, during my own ordeal, were just like "pay your taxes goddammit!" were jerks who get T4s, copy a couple numbers, think about writing off their car payments, and get it done in an afternoon. Just saying.

judging other people is so fucking fun though. i think that's pretty incontrovertible.

:)

well her defense doesn't seem to be 'this shit was really complicated and I screwed up'

'I also embraced my right to resist a system intentionally opposing my right to whole and integral survival.'

"get a therapist" or "get away from your terrible cheating headfucking husband" would probably have been the best advice for lauryn tbh (and i mean this with no snark, i have a massive amount of sympathy for what are clearly serious emotional problems that are being indulged by the industry so they can squeeze some cash out of her)

Yeah, well:

This motherfucking tax collector on the phone was saying "I'm sorry to hear that your mother-in-law died. But I went through that whole process myself with my dad in palliative care and my life went on, you know? I still had to pay bills" and I was shaking with rage, Barbara had died the week before, my boyfriend had been nursing her all year, so fucking what if we hadn't done our bookkeeping. And we don't even have kids. I make no secret that I'm a state-loving commie, but once I finish filing 2012 I am going to devote all my time to getting this woman fired

Sorry to clutter the Lauryn Hill thread with my personal rage but I'd been stewing about this all week

and stevie otm as always

well that's fucking horrible

for all that the IRS is getting demonized now, my dealings with them have never been like that, and I kind of extrapolate that experience internationally when I probably shouldn't; also my dealings with them have been proactive rather than reactive and it may be that that worked in my favor

goon yr tax experience sounds nightmarish

Yeah that's terrible. Not a comparable situation at all, but I get where your emotion is coming from. My tiny violin remains specifically for multi-millionaires, because I have no idea how much money she must have run through since The Score to not have the relatively small amount it would've taken to keep her out of jail. I've had some bad tax issues myself, and they happened bacause I was irresponsible. She doesn't get to opt out of being an adult just because she's a hippie or a celebrity.

True, but multimillionaire celebrities can sometimes (usually) attract less-than-scrupulous accountants/business managers.

See, that too. And I'm not contesting anybody's right to their tiny violins. But I sympathize with her. It has long been a Big Frustration Of Mine that they don't teach you (or at least, they didn't teach me or many of my friends) in high school, like right away, "this is how taxation works. Get ready to be taxed," because I think many people get to age 23, age 25 (age 32 in once instance I can think of) having no idea that they need to file! I didn't know until I was 24, I thought paying taxes was something people did when buying groceries.

one of the first things my parents did when I got my first job in high school was show me a 1040-EZ, even though I didn't make enough money to be required to file

it's true, though, that none of this was actually covered in school as far as I can remember

It's times like this when I'm relieved to have an accountant for a father-in-law.

It has long been a Big Frustration Of Mine that they don't teach you (or at least, they didn't teach me or many of my friends) in high school, like right away, "this is how taxation works. Get ready to be taxed," because I think many people get to age 23, age 25 (age 32 in once instance I can think of) having no idea that they need to file!

wow didn't know they need to file at all? that's...special. when i didn't file, i sure as hell knew i was doing something wrong that had consequences.

but i totally agree that it should be, like, a course you take in high school or a major part of Home Ec or something.

it's unbelievable that it's not taught in schools tbh - it's not in the uk either - and most people don't need to learn about the logistics and paperwork because in normal jobs tax is just deducted straight out of your salary. when i went freelance i was completely unaware that anything would be different, and then when i realised it was i had zero idea what to actually do, who to contact etc. i still don't feel like i 100% understand how it works

yeah! me too! I'm really fortunate, my boss at age 24, when he heard I hadn't ever filed, he got damn fatherly at me "what do you mean you don't file? do you not walk on these sidewalks? do you not drink from these faucets?!" and sat at my desk while I googled "how do you pay taxes" and I was like whoa! Best boss ever.

in the US if you have a normal job it's deducted automatically too but you STILL have to file a tax return every year

I'd heard inklings of it from people-- "Oh I just got my tax return back!"-- but considering this was a hand-to-mouth, didn't own a computer period of my life, it just seemed like something rich people did

yeah one of my housemates after college was a carpenter who did mainly contract work, and it was a red-tape nightmare for him to do his taxes every year.

Add daily 8-hour commutes, bankrolling accommodations and travel, 10 different kinds of currency and 14 countries to file in and you've got an idea of the situation. My spreadsheets literally had a column for Czech kroner. And another for zloty. And four more for ISK, DOK, NOK and SEK. Happily I did't go to Asia until the next year. I'm not complaining! I chose this life! Bergen was beautiful etc.

(hug)

http://pitchfork.com/news/52540-listen-lauryn-hill-consumerism/

I can't tell if I even like this or not. It has the stench of slam poetry all over it, but the track itself is pretty damn good.

whoa i missed "consumerism" at the time. that's pretty powerful stuff there.

it's ace, isn't it? it's like she's gone all Consolidated or something.

absolutely packed with ideas

j0rdan said it well - http://www.thefader.com/2013/11/28/live-lauryn-hill-bowery-ballroom-prison-homecoming-show-revie/#/0

It wasn’t until the encore that Hill stopped to speak at any length, and it was after she performed her most recent song, “Consumerism,” over the beat for Busta Rhymes’ “Don’t Touch Me (Throw Da Water On ‘Em).” “Consumerism” is almost impossibly knotty in both meaning and structure, and as Hill rapped the song her mouth was unable to keep up with the words firing out of her brain. She recognized this, and noted after the track’s conclusion that her new material (including “Neurotic Society [Compulsory Mix]”) was so wordy because it is the product of bottled-up emotion. She mimed the seething rattle of a machine gun, intimating that her voice is a weapon that not even she can completely control.

Then she recited some of the lyrics to “Consumerism” slowly and with no beat, as if she was doing spoken word. Modernism has created modern prisons/ Neo-McCarthyisms, new colonialisms… Impositions, superstitions, violence and contradictions/ False pretense and no convictions. This is dense and theoretical stuff, but one only needs to know names like Edward Snowden or Renisha McBride to argue that “Neo-McCarthyisms” and false pretenses and no convictions are more pertinent topics of discussion than Macklemore’s self-gratifying stances or Lorde’s distaste for gold teeth and champagne. But then again, Ms. Hill had to pause and spell it out for even her most fervent fans.

the unplugged album's pretty dense and unwieldy too. i think i wrote one of the few positive reviews of that.

that last paragraph is terrific

haaa i remember that review!!! if it hadn't been the era when you had to pay to hear music i'd've listened to it on the strength of that

xp

has she given any interviews since leaving prison?

xp thank you! i was in a very emo place when i wrote it

thanks guys

one thing that she seemed to be hinting at is that her two new tracks are more like necessary venting and not a blueprint for all her material going forward

we'll see tho. i feel like radio would still welcome her back if she put out a song that was more r&b

this just in: lauryn hill still lucid, powerful, very much not crazy

https://soundcloud.com/mslaurynhill/black-rage-sketch