Source: Theo Wargo / Getty
Lauryn Hill is always late, but her push for this one bill is on time.
The often reclusive rapper/singer has been quite vocal on Instagram when it comes to pushing California lawmakers to pass the FAIR Act, a labor law that would significantly affect the length of artists could be under contract.
The Free Artists from Industry Restrictions Act was first introduced last year by California State Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez and called for artist or label contracts in California to be limited to seven years. Hill is one of the bill’s most prominent supporters and has shared three Instagram posts urging for its passing.
In her most recent post, she wrote:
We would love to believe that businesses at the highest level are always run by fair practices and moral prerogatives, but this is more often than not, not the case. For this reason, laws MUST exist that protect people from harsh and insensitive practices like artist suppression, and willful sabotage and neglect. Record companies are still peopled and run by… Well, people—with personal policies, biases, and issues we may know nothing about. Artists can easily fall prey to the internal politics of business, someone inside simply not liking them, or bullying and intimidation and the attacks that come when someone resists that coercion.
The Fugees member’s beef with the music industry is well documented and she made it clear in her post. She pointed out how it is constructed will “pervert the creative intentions of young dreamers who don’t realize they’re up against a system with a history of using and crushing people who don’t comply with their agenda.”
“We have a history of examples, of albums, of bands, and of people whose influence on popular culture has literally changed the world. When these voices go silence and repressed, the world is dramatically affected. No institution should be allowed the opportunity to control the market by controlling the output of a creative being for some ridiculous, indefinite period of time,” she further added.
The bill will also affect TV and film productions as well. We shall see if Hill and other voices calling for the passage of the FAIR Act will help it get it over the legislative hump.
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Photo: Theo Wargo / Getty
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