C. Delores Tucker Dies, One of Tupac's Best-Known Opponents

On Wednesday, October 12, 2005, C. Delores Tucker died in Pennsylvania at the age of 78. Radio station NPR recalled her time in the civil rights movement: Tucker had marched arm in arm with Martin Luther King in Selma. In later years, she became known primarily for her campaign against gangsta rap, which she described in an excerpt broadcast by NPR as “drug-driven, race-driven and greed-driven”.

Dispute with Tupac

Together with former drug czar William Bennett, Tucker had pressured Time Warner starting in 1994 to sever ties with Interscope, the distributor of Death Row and thus also of Tupac. Tupac attacked her in two songs, in “Wonda Why They Call U Bytch” and in “How Do U Want It”.

In 1997, just under a year after Tupac’s death, Tucker sued his estate in federal court in Philadelphia for ten million dollars. The lyrics on All Eyez on Me had humiliated her and damaged her marriage, according to the lawsuit. Named as defendants alongside Afeni Shakur as administrator of the estate were Death Row, Interscope, and Time Warner, among others. A representative of the estate expressed bewilderment at the allegations at the time.

The Legal Battle Outlived Her

Tucker’s husband William pursued a defamation lawsuit against two newspapers that had reported on her claim after her death. In October 2006, the Supreme Court declined to hear the case.