Rap Critic C. DeLores Tucker Sues Tupac's Estate

Original: “Woman sues rapper’s estate” · Associated Press, reprinted in the Las Vegas Sun · no byline · August 1, 1997

Ten Million Dollars for a Ruined Sex Life

Many initially took the AP report in August 1997 for a joke: C. DeLores Tucker, one of gangsta rap’s loudest critics, sued Tupac’s estate in federal court in Philadelphia for $10 million. The lines about her on the double album All Eyez on Me had allegedly caused her “great humiliation, mental pain and suffering.” The sexual references had even damaged the relationship with her husband.

Estate administrator Richard Fischbein reacted dryly: “It’s hard for me to conceive how these lyrics could destroy her sex life.” The report recalled that in 1994, Tucker had launched a campaign against rap together with former U.S. drug czar William Bennett.

Counterattack on “All Eyez on Me”

Tupac had attacked Tucker directly on All Eyez on Me. On How Do U Want It, he calls her by name and accuses her of destroying Black people instead of helping them. Tucker also applied Wonda Why They Call U Bitch to herself. The backdrop was her pressure on Time Warner, which had led to the corporation’s exit from Interscope in 1995 (see Tucker Takes on Time Warner).

Dismissed in Court: Free Speech Protects the Lyrics

The lawsuit was part of an entire wave of cases against the estate. In February 1998, MTV reported that a court had allowed Tucker’s lawsuit for defamation, invasion of privacy, and intentional infliction of emotional distress to proceed. In the end, she failed: the federal court in Philadelphia dismissed the lawsuit. The federal appeals court (3rd Circuit) affirmed in 2001 in Tucker v. Fischbein that the lyrics were protected speech and not actionable.

In 2006, the Supreme Court declined to review another defamation lawsuit by Tucker against two Philadelphia newspapers that had described her case as a dispute over her sex life. Her husband had continued it after her death.

Tucker died on October 12, 2005. The lines about her remain one of the best-known examples of Tupac answering criticism with a counterattack.