In the music business, it seems, the times are always a-changin'. Only yesterday -- well, 1995 -- flannel was flyin', online music was what you heard while you waited to buy records, and political activist C. DeLores Tucker was pressuring Time Warner to sell its interest in Interscope Records because the company distributed gangsta rap by the likes of Snoop Doggy Dogg. These days, grunge is what gets caught in a D.J.'s turntables, and even the most avant A&R executives are more interested in buying Cisco than signing Sisqo. But once Time Warner announced it was merging the Warner Music Group (Warner Bros., Elektra, Atlantic) with EMI (Virgin, Capitol, Priority) last week, the company was back into business with Snoop -- now signed to Master P's No Limit Records, which is distributed by EMI's Priority. And Tucker, last seen reciting Lil' Kim lyrics at a 1997 Time Warner shareholder meeting, says she's ready for her comeback. "If Time Warner is going to continue to pollute the minds of children, America will know all about it," says Tucker. "I think buying into this company with Master P takes the place of the deal with Death Row." Time Warner could not discuss the not-yet-official merger, but Snoop Doggy Dogg, reached as he was being fitted for a special-effects body cast for his role in the forthcoming New Line horror movie Bones, was typically mellow -- he said through a spokesman that Time Warner "does their thing, and I make music." Tucker has apparently kept the Time Warner stock that allowed her to disrupt shareholder meetings, so does that mean she was happy to see her shares rise in the wake of the Time Warner-AOL merger? "That," she says dismissively, "didn't interest me at all."

Related:

• Archive: “Gotham: Life in the New City”
• Articles by Julia Chaplin | Robert Levine
• Table of Contents: February 7, 2000 issue of New York | Subscribe!