Lauryn Hill Admits Signing Sony Record Deal To Pay Back Taxes In Tumblr Post; Must Pay $504,000 By May 6 To Avoid Prison Time

Lauryn Hill has opened up in a Tumblr post about her tax evasion charge, which has left her facing up to 3 years in prison and evicted from her rented New Jersey home, and her reported new music contract with Sony Music.

Lauryn Hill, former member of the Fugees, posted a 353-word letter on her Tumblr page. In the note, she admits that most of the media reports on her financial problems are accurate. However, Hill clarifies that some previously reported facts regarding her tax case and music deal are false.

Hill wrote, "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."

In the Tumblr post, Hill doesn't talk any more about her new music, but she added, "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."

A federal court judge postponed Lauryn Hill's tax evasion sentencing earlier this week after Hill pleaded for leniency, arguing that she'd be better able to repay her debts out of prison.

Hill pleaded guilty last year to failing to pay federal taxes on $1.8 million she earned from 2005 to 2007. The judge gave Hill until May 6 to pay off her liability, which currently stands at $504,000, Billboard reported.

Hill briefly explained that reports that her new music deal offered her $1 million for five songs "was inaccurate, [and] only a portion of the overall deal."

Lauryn Hill's first, and only, solo studio album, "The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill," sold more than 8 million copies in the United States. In her statement, Hill claimed that her past recordings have sold over "50,000,000 units worldwide, earning the [music] label a tremendous amount of money (a fraction of which actually came to me)."

It will be interesting to see if Hill's statements and new music deal will sway the judge in her tax evasion case. The judge who heard Hill's proceedings said on Monday, "This is not someone who stands before the court penniless. Actions speak louder than words."