Interscope Files Lawsuit Against Rap Music Critic : Entertainment: Company accuses activist of conspiring with Time Warner to get Death Row Records to sever its ties.

In the first public breach between Time Warner Inc. and Interscope Records, the controversial Westwood-based company filed a lawsuit Tuesday against rap critic C. DeLores Tucker, accusing her of scheming with Time Warner to take the sting out of Interscope’s rap music.

Interscope distributes music by Death Row Records, home to Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dogg, and has repeatedly come under fire in recent months by Tucker and others who have called on Time Warner to sever ties with the label.

According to the suit filed in federal court in Los Angeles, Tucker and members of her organization sought to persuade Death Row Chairman Suge Knight to split with Interscope and start a new distribution venture that she said would be financed by Time Warner.

In a phone interview from her Washington office, Tucker said members of her organization, the National Political Congress of Black Women, had been in contact since July with representatives of Time Warner and Death Row but that she has sought only to resolve what she sees as a social problem, not to capitalize upon it.

“Our aim is to stop this pornographic smut, and this lawsuit is simply an attempt to cloud the issue,” Tucker said. “We’re out to save the children. Interscope knows that when Time Warner dumps them, we’re going to show up wherever they land to shut them down. If that’s interference, then so be it.”

Representatives for Interscope declined to comment.

Time Warner, which sources said entered into negotiations five weeks ago to shed its 50% stake of Interscope, is not a target of the suit. Time Warner’s Atlantic Ventures division, however, is named as a defendant because of a technicality, according to legal sources familiar with the suit.

A Time Warner spokesman in New York said: “Whatever efforts were undertaken by Miss Tucker were done as a volunteer and without any authorization from Warner Music or Time Warner. We’d like to say that we don’t think this litigation is a sensible way to resolve the differences.”

Time Warner has been at the center of the latest controversy over rap music since May, when Senate Majority leader and GOP presidential candidate Bob Dole (R-Kan.) joined Tucker in launching a crusade to stop the media conglomerate from selling “violent and sexually degrading” music.

Pressure on the conglomerate continues to escalate as Death Row prepares to release the debut album of Tha Dogg Pound, a “gangsta” rap record rife with potentially offensive lyrics.

Last week, singer Dionne Warwick, co-chairwoman of Tucker’s Washington-based group, invited Warner Music Group Chairman Michael Fuchs to her Los Angeles home to meet with Knight to discuss lyrics, sources said. Fuchs accepted the invitation and flew in from New York without notifying Interscope. He went to Warwick’s house but left after several hours when Knight did not show up.

“We’ve known for a while that Time Warner was going to divorce itself from Interscope,” Tucker said. “It’s true that we discussed the possibility with Suge that we would negotiate with Time Warner to see if they might distribute his company’s music--but only if his artists agreed to clean up their lyrics. But we never promised him any money.”

According to the suit, Knight met with Tucker and Warwick on July 7 in Seattle at the National Political Congress of Black Women’s summer convention. The suit alleges that Tucker violated Interscope’s exclusive contract with Death Row by proposing to form a joint venture distribution company with Knight that would market PG-rated rap. The suit alleges that Tucker stated she had numerous private conversations about her plan with Fuchs and Time Warner Chairman Gerald Levin and that she told Knight they were prepared to put up “incredible amounts of money.”

Knight could not be reached Tuesday.

According to the suit, Tucker asked Knight to sign a letter that would appoint Tucker and her associates as Death Row’s exclusive representative to negotiate “an acceptable contract relationship with Time Warner regarding production and distribution” of Death Row recordings.

Tucker said Tuesday that she arranged a meeting in early August in which Knight and rap star Snoop Doggy Dogg visited Warwick at her home and played her some PG-rated rap songs. About a week later, Warwick asked Fuchs to meet with Knight.

A Time Warner spokesman said Fuchs visited Warwick’s house, but only after being told that Knight wanted to meet with him to discuss lyrics. The spokesman said no one in the company has ever had any “business” conversation with Tucker or Knight about Death Row or Interscope.