Dr. Dre Lawsuit Makes Its Way to Michigan Supreme Court

A lawsuit against Dr. Dre, stemming from an incident during the 2000 Up In Smoke tour, has made it all the way to the Michigan State Supreme Court. On Wednesday (Jan. 19), the state court will hear arguments from former city police official Gary Brown, former police department spokeswoman Paula Bridges, and former spokesman for then-mayor Dennis Archer, Greg Bowens. The officials are all claiming that they were illegally filmed for a DVD chronicling the tour.

During the performance, Brown warned promoters of playing a sexually explicit video during the show, the dialogue was filmed without his knowledge and later added to a bonus scene on the DVD titled 'Backstage Controversy.' According to Brown, he was told that the conversation would be confidential, but it was taped in secret, thus violating his privacy rights. "They recorded the footage of the meeting and used it to see this gangster rap DVD," said Glenn Oliver, the attorney representing the plaintiffs in the case. "It's vile and it's got everything that you would not want your child to see on it."

Herschel Fink, a lawyer representing Dre and the other rappers on the bill, countered that filming was out in the open, not hidden. He also argued that since Brown was a member of law enforcement, he had no right to privacy while doing his job. "Law enforcement cannot have an objectively reasonable expectation of privacy, even if they believe subjectively that they are doing what they're doing in private," he said. Despite being a defendant, Dre is not scheduled to make an appearance at the court.

The Up In Smoke tour stopped at Detroit's Joe Louis Arena in July of that year. Snoop Dogg, Eminem and Ice Cube were also featured at the concert. Dre has stayed relatively quiet since then, working on his new album, 'Detox,' for the past decade. The album, his third, is lead by the single 'Kush' and scheduled for release on April 20.

Watch Dr. Dre's 'Kush'