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Dr Dre forces right-wing politician to stop using his song
Published 11:11 10 Jan 2023 GMT
Homemusic
Dr Dre said he 'will never' let the far-right conspiracy theorist use his music
Rap legend Dr. Dre has forced a prominent right-wing politician in the US to stop using one of his songs in a promotional video. Republican Marjorie Taylor 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. She shared the video with the caption: "They can't stop what's coming." But Dre has since said he never licensed the song to far-right conspiracy theorist Greene, and sent a cease-and-desist letter to her. https://twitter.com/RepMTG/status/1612451685338603522 Greene is on the far-right of the Republican party and has a history of expressing racist, Islamophobic and anti-Semitic views. Politico reports that she has previously suggested that Muslims do not belong in government, thinks black people are "held slaves to the Democratic Party", has labelled a Jewish Democratic donor a Nazi, and said she would feel "proud" to see a Confederate monument if she were black because it symbolizes progress made since the Civil War. In November 2020, she became the first open supporter of QAnon to be elected to Congress. She has also previously shared social media posts supporting 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 the Rothschilds, a prominent Jewish family who are the subject of many anti-Semitic conspiracy theories. [caption id="attachment_373546" align="alignnone" width="2048"]
Marjorie Taylor Greene is a prominent Trump supporter and conspiracy theorist. She's pictured here in January 2021, wearing a facemask claiming that Trump won the 2020 election (Getty)[/caption]
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 iconic piano riff from 'Still D.R.E', a 1999 single by Dr Dre and Snoop Dogg, played over the top of the video.
In the letter cease-and-desist letter, Dre said that Greene's use of 'Still D.R.E.' constituted copyright infringement and that the rapper "has not, and will never" grant her 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.
https://twitter.com/jeffpearlman/status/1612574566987206656They demanded that Greene "cease and desist from any further unauthorised use" of Dre's work, and for her to provide confirmation that she had complied with the request by Wednesday evening.
The politician has since hit back at the rapper, criticising Dre's background in gangsta rap. She told TMZ: "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."Explore more on these topics:
