Legendary rapper and producer Dr. Dre criticized Georgia Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene as "hateful and divisive" after she used his classic song "Still D.R.E." in an online promotional video without his permission.
Greene's video shows her walking through the halls of Congress in slow-motion and appearing to text with former Republican President Donald Trump to secure votes for House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, whose bid for the speakership was imperiled by a rebellion within the ranks of the GOP last week.
Greene posted her video to Twitter but it was removed for copyright infringement.
You can see it below.
Dr. Dre later told TMZ he doesn't "license [his] music to politicians, especially someone as divisive and hateful as this one" referring to Greene.
He also took legal action against her for violating his copyright and his lawyers wrote a letter to her in which they stated she is "wrongfully exploiting this work through the various social media outlets to promote your divisive and hateful political agenda."
You can see the letter below.
The letter to Greene read, in part:
"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."
"The United States Copyright Act says a lot of things, but one of the things it says is that you can't use someone else's song for your political campaign promotions unless you get permission from the owner of the copyright in the song, a step you failed to take."
Many praised Dr. Dre and his legal team for speaking out.
The letter to Greene is only the latest example of Republicans openly violating copyright to court their base.
In November 2022, filmmaker Duncan Jones—the son of the late rocker David Bowie—said he thinks Trump is playing his father's music during campaign events "to wind me up, pointing to Trump's decision to use Bowie's song "Heroes" during his recent 2024 presidential campaign announcement.
In 2020, Trump was called out by the estate of the late rocker Tom Petty for using the song "I Won't Back Down" to promote his second presidential campaign.
At the time, Petty's estate said Petty—who made no secret of his progressive politics when he was alive—would have disapproved of Trump's use of the song, saying Trump "was in no way authorized" to use it "to further a campaign that leaves too many Americans and common sense behind."
@WhiteHouse/X
