Dr Dre forces US politician Marjorie Taylor Greene to remove promo video

1 year ago 70
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Dr Dre at the Super Bowl, 2021Image source, Getty Images

Image caption,

Dr Dre helmed the Super Bowl half-time show in 2022

By Mark Savage

BBC Music Correspondent

Rapper Dr Dre has sent a cease-and-desist letter to US politician Marjorie Taylor Greene, after she used one of his songs in a promotional video.

Greene used his hit song Still D.R.E. in a Twitter video celebrating Kevin McCarthy's election as speaker of the US House of Representatives.

"They can't stop what's coming," she captioned the video.

Dre said he had not licensed the song to Greene, who has a history of sharing far-right conspiracy theories.

Her social media posts have supporting outlandish suggestions that a 2018 high school shooting was staged, and that a wildfire in California was ignited by a laser beam shot from space by a prominent Jewish family, the Rothschilds, who are the subject of many anti-Semitic conspiracy theories.

Such tropes are common amongst right-wing QAnon followers.

The Georgia Republican's latest video showed her walking the halls of Congress in slow-motion, smiling and reflecting on her role in helping McCarthy secure the House speaker position.

The score was the iconic piano riff from Still D.R.E, a 1999 single by Dr Dre and Snoop Dogg.

Dre, whose real name is Andre Young, immediately expressed his displeasure.

"I don't license my music to politicians, especially someone as divisive and hateful as this one," he said in a statement to TMZ and the LA Times.

Within hours, the video had been removed from Twitter and replaced with the message: "This media has been disabled in response to a report by the copyright owner".

Image source, Getty Images

Image caption,

The Republican was re-elected in 2022, after a failed attempt to have her barred from standing for office over her role in the US Capitol Riot

Dre's lawyers then sent Greene a letter accusing Greene of "wrongfully exploiting" his music "to promote [a] divisive and hateful political agenda".

The letter said that Greene's use of Still D.R.E. constituted copyright infringement and that the rapper "has not, and will never, grant [Greene] permission to broadcast or disseminate any of his music".

"One might expect that, as a member of Congress, you would have a passing familiarity with the laws of our country. It's possible, though, that laws governing intellectual property are a little too arcane and insufficiently populist for you to really have spent much time on," the letter continued.

They demanded that Greene "cease and desist from any further unauthorised use" of Dre's work, and to confirm that she had complied with the request by Wednesday evening.

The politician fired back, attempting to undermine Dre's moral authority by referring to his background in gangsta rap, as a member of NWA and producer for artists like Snoop Dogg, 50 Cent and Eminem.

"While I appreciate the creative chord progression, I would never play your words of violence against women and police officers, and your glorification of the thug life and drugs," she told TMZ.

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