C. DeLores Tucker Sues Tupac's Estate for Ten Million Dollars

In the last week of July 1997, C. DeLores Tucker filed a lawsuit against Tupac’s estate in federal court in Philadelphia, as the Los Angeles Times reported on August 1. Tucker, for years one of the most outspoken critics of gangsta rap, demanded ten million dollars. She felt defamed by lines on All Eyez on Me, the 1996 double album that had sold almost five million copies by then.

An Unusual Cause of Action

The lyrics had caused her great humiliation and mental distress, the lawsuit stated, and her husband William had therefore been deprived of marital support and companionship with his wife. The newspapers seized primarily on this point: the songs had impaired their married life.

Also named as a defendant was Afeni Shakur as administrator of the estate. Her co-administrator Richard Fischbein was perplexed: he could hardly imagine how song lyrics could cause that. More on this in the magazine: Rap critic C. DeLores Tucker sues Tupac’s estate.