21 Savage Celebrates 29th Birthday W/ Freaknik-Themed Party + Festival Spokesperson Later Slams Rapper & Threatens Lawsuit: We Can’t Just Let Others Infringe On Our Brand
21 Savage Celebrates 29th Birthday W/ Freaknik-Themed Party + Festival Spokesperson Later Slams Rapper & Threatens Lawsuit: We Can’t Just Let Others Infringe On Our Brand
21 Savage now has beef with the Freaknik Festival‘s organizers!
This past Friday (Oct. 22nd), 21 Savage turned 29 years old. To celebrate the occasion, the “Many Men” rapper had a Freaknik-themed birthday party–dubbed “Freaknik 21.” However, the iconic festival’s organizers took issue with the event and asked the rapper to either acknowledge the original Freaknik Festival or change the name of his party–though 21 Savage apparently refused. The root of the issue seems to be the fact that Freaknik is trademarked by After 9 Partners, LLC.
A spokesperson for Freaknik addressed the matter by calling out the rapper on Twitter yesterday morning (Sunday, Oct. 24th). Alongside a video from 21 Savage‘s party, the spokesperson proclaimed:
“Saw @21savageand @megameezy #Freaknik21 last night at @underground_atlanta and looked like a super dope event. Sucks we gonna have to sue them when all we asked that they acknowledged us since it was a free event and they declined.”
Saw @21savage and @megameezy #Freaknik21 last night at @underground_atlanta and looked like a super dope event. Sucks we gonna have to sue them when all we asked that they acknowledged us since it was a free event and they declined ?????????? pic.twitter.com/a3YeoK3Uq8
— FreakNik Festival (@FreaknikFest) October 24, 2021
The account owner added:
“Spending over a million to revive a brand, fighting negative public perception and proving we can do it 2 years with no issues, comes at a cost. We can’t let others just infringe on that. So know when you hear them talk about we tried to work it out very easily beforehand [sad face emoji].”
Earlier today (Monday, Oct. 25th), 21 Savage responded by quote tweeting the Freaknik Festival’s original statement and adding:
“Y’all better sit down somewhere.”
The Freaknik account’s owner soon responded and doubled down about suing 21 Savage.
The spokesperson proceeded to then subtweet 21 Savage.
After 9 Partners, LLC also chimed in:
“@21savage we are the owners of the Freaknik trademark. All we asked is for you to acknowledge the rightful owner and we would have asked you to do something positive like post a link to raise money for charity. Since we always do something good in the hood every Freaknik.”
Shortly thereafter, the LLC’s spokesperson quote tweeted 21 Savage‘s statement and added:
21 Savage has not issued any other comments on the matter.
Notably, 21 Savage isn’t the only rapper who had a Freaknik-themed birthday party this year. Back in early July, Saweetie celebrated turning 27 by having a party based on the Atlanta music festival. She commemorated the event on Instagram back in August, in part writing:
“happy one month anniversary to my birthday freaknikkkk!”
Freaknik also addressed the matter on Instagram, uploading trademark documents and a screenshot from a text conversation showing how the organizers went about approaching the situation.
At one point in the lengthy caption, the account owner stated:
“[21 Savage’s] event was a smack in our face to all the hardwork [sic] we put in. We said we will give you license for FREE and was gonna ask to make sure it has a nonprofit presence there. They said no…I didn’t want this smoke…again we said ‘man put on for the city just acknowledge us and we will give you the license FREE.’ Meezy said he would just change the name. He didnt…… and here we are.”
What do you think about the situation? Comment down below to let us know!