News of April 28, 2004
C. Delores Tucker Fails in Lawsuit Against Two Newspapers
The Tupac opponent had sued two newspapers over their reports on the lawsuit against Tupac's estate. On April 28, 2004, she lost again.
The dispute over a line from “How Do You Want It” occupied the courts even eight years after Tupac’s death. On April 28, 2004, C. Delores Tucker lost another defamation lawsuit. As AllHipHop reported two days later, she had accused the Philadelphia Daily News and the legal trade publication The Legal Intelligencer of reporting falsely on her legal battle with Tupac’s estate.
The origin: a song lyric
In “How Do You Want It”, Tupac had rhymed Tucker’s last name with a curse word. Tucker sued the estate in 1997, claiming among other things the loss of “consortium”. Many media outlets, including the two newspapers, subsequently wrote that the song had affected her sex life. Tucker considered that a misinterpretation: what was meant was advice, companionship and family solidarity, not her intimate life.
Hurdle for an appeal
Tucker lost. According to the report, a judge ruled that an appeal was only possible if the Tuckers could prove that the newspapers had been told before their reports that the term had nothing to do with sex. On the beginning of the dispute: Tucker sues the estate.