Rap critic sues Time, Newsweek

Gangsta rap critic C. DeLores Tucker filed a $5-million defamation lawsuit Wednesday against Time and Newsweek, saying the magazines published malicious articles about her sex life.

The suit, filed in Philadelphia federal court, says Time and Newsweek purposely mischaracterized a “loss of consortium” claim listed in a separate $10-million defamation suit lodged by Tucker in July against the estate of rapper Tupac Shakur.

The earlier suit alleged that lyrics on a 1996 album by Shakur made derogatory references to Tucker that, among other things, caused her husband to “suffer a loss of advice, companionship and consortium.”

Following media reports that Tucker had sued Shakur’s estate for damaging her sex life, Tucker’s attorney informed Richard Fischbein, co-administrator of Shakur’s estate, and reporters at Time and Newsweek that the complaint had nothing to do with her sex life, the new suit says.

The loss of consortium claim, the suit says, was limited to the “legal right of one spouse to the company, affection and service of the other,” as defined by Webster’s dictionary.

The new suit, which also names Fischbein as a defendant, contends that Time and Newsweek disregarded information provided by Tucker’s attorney and published “false and defamatory” stories that misrepresented Tucker’s complaint as one that “involved her inability to have sex with her husband.”