Rappers Sue, Get Sued

By Stephen M. Silverman

08/24/1998 at 12:00 AM EDT

Rapper Dr. Dre has slapped the city of Detroit with a $25 million First Amendment violation lawsuit in the wake of officials there shutting down an eight-minute concert video of his (depicting naked women and a gun shoot-out) during a July 8 concert. The suit, filed by Dr. Dre, whose real name is Andre Young, was filed in Detroit U.S. District Court on Friday. A city press secretary told the Associated Press that the suit was baseless and nothing "but a publicity stunt." Meanwhile, Snoop Doggy Dogg has been hit with a second federal lawsuit by musician Francisco Rodriguez. At issue is copyright infringement: Rodriguez claims that Snoop Dogg (whose legal name is Calvin Broadus) took the music for the song "Dogghouse" from him. Rodriguez previously sued Snoop Dogg over three other songs. That case is slated to go to trial in Los Angeles on Nov. 7.