Sophia Michaels
Dr. Dre and his legal team have taken action against Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene after she used the “Still D.R.E.” instrumental in a self-promotional video shared Monday, Jan. 9.
The objectively goofy clip pairs the “Still D.R.E.” beat — which Dre produced with Mel-Man and Scott Storch —with some slo-mo clips of Greene not exactly working hard but walking around the halls of Congress. There’s also some footage of Greene taking a phone call from “DT” (yeesh) and celebrating the end of Kevin McCarthy’s abject humiliation when he was finally elected Speaker of the House on the 15th try.
After the video popped up on Twitter, Dr. Dre’s lawyers issued a letter, obtained by Rolling Stone, accusing her of “wrongfully exploiting this work through the various social media outlets to promote your divisive and hateful political agenda.” The letter added that Dre (real name Andre Young) “has not, and will never, grant you permission not broadcast or disseminate any of his music.”
After claiming the use of “Still D.R.E” in the clip constituted copyright infringement, the letter continued, “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. We’re writing because we think an actual lawmaker should be making laws not breaking laws, especially those embodied in the constitution by the founding fathers.”
Dre’s lawyers then demanded that Greene “cease and desist from any further unauthorized use of” the musician’s work. It also requested that Greene confirm she’s “compiled with these demands” before Jan. 11 at 5 p.m. ET
It doesn’t appear that Dre’s team had to wait that long: As of publication, the video has been removed from Greene’s Twitter account, with a message reading, “This media has been disabled in response to a report by the copyright owner.” (Mediaite has preserved a copy for those willing to subject themselves.)
In a statement first shared with TMZ, Greene claimed she was locked out of her Twitter as a result of the complaint — though at 3:50 p.m. she was able to post a screen grab of her statement.
Addressing Dre, Greene said, “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.”
