News Headlines
The Fugees' Pras Lives Homeless on $1 a Day for Documentary
April 6, 2006
Pras Michel, of the renowned Fugees, went from being a Grammy-winning artist to being homeless and coping on a $1-a-day budget.
Well...sort of.
Pras has been living as a homeless man on a $1 a day budget in Los Angeles for the past nine days as part of his First Night documentary, in which he’s chronicling his experiences living in poverty.
“The dollar a day didn’t get me much at all,” Pras told the New York Daily News Wednesday (April 5). “You have to hustle, steal, shoplift or prostitute yourself. I chose panhandling. People gave me the worst looks, like I was invisible and at the same time the worst person on Earth.”
Pras later informed the Daily News that seven hours of begging got him only $8 and that he wasn’t allowed to enter a Hollywood hotel to get something to eat. Pras also disclosed that he had to sleep in the rain and had his tent stolen.
With a hidden camera, Pras was able to capture the harsh realities of homelessness. The rapper witnessed homeless people shooting heroin adjacent to an LAPD station and defecating on the sidewalk in broad daylight.
“People aren’t going to understand what it was like until they see it,” said Pras. “Human beings should not be sleeping among rats.”
Pras hopes to screen First Night at the Toronto Film Festival in September.
Have a news tip? Email us.
Read more vibe.com news headlines.
