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Choice of Law Bars Rapper's Defamation Case

By Tom McParland

A Delaware federal judge dismissed a defamation suit by a rapper formerly affiliated with the hip-hop group Wu-Tang Clan who claimed media outlets falsely reported that he attempted a grisly act of self-mutilation and attempted suicide. Johnson v. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc., 1:2016cv00185 (D. Del. 2017).

Marques Andre Johnson, known by the stage name Andre Roxx, had sued a contingent of media companies in March 2016, nearly two years after outlets incorrectly reported that he severed his penis and jumped out of a window while attending a party in California. In fact, Johnson, who had been associated with Wu-Tang's Killa Beez outfit, was serving a 16-month prison sentence in a Pennsylvania prison at the time. It turned out that another Wu-Tang affiliated rapper named Andre Johnson — known as Christ Bearer — had committed the gruesome act.

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