Kanye West – Two Black Men Acquire ‘White Lives Matter’ Trademark Following Rapper’s Controversial Fashion Show, Could Possibly Sell Phrase To Raise Money For Causes They Feel ‘Would Benefit Black People’

Kanye West – Two Black Men Acquire ‘White Lives Matter’ Trademark Following Rapper’s Controversial Fashion Show, Could Possibly Sell Phrase To Raise Money For Causes They Feel ‘Would Benefit Black People’

Two black men have trademarked the phrase ‘White Lives Matter.’

In an interview with Capital B, the hosts of Civic Cipher — an Arizona-based radio show focused on racial justice — revealed that they now own the trademark for the phrase ‘White Lives Matter’– the controversial term that Kanye West has attempted to use in his new Yeezy line.

Ramses Ja– who co-hosts Civic Cipher with Quinton Ward– had this to say about the trademark:

“The way the law works is either you’re owning phrases, or it’s up for grabs for people to make money off them..This person who first procured it didn’t really love owning it, because the purpose was not necessarily to get rich off of it; the purpose was to make sure that other people didn’t get rich off of that pain.”

According to the radio hosts, someone acquired the trademark back in 2020 so that it wouldn’t fall into the wrong hands, however, as of Oct. 28, the owner decided to hand over the trademark to the two men.

Ramses Ja continued,

“If we were to sell that trademark, for whatever amount of money, we could donate that money to causes that we feel would benefit Black people, like the NAACP or Black Lives Matter organizations. Because, realistically, we cannot stop the shirts from being made right now. We can write cease and desist to people selling these shirts right now, but that is a big monster that requires teams of lawyers and thousands of dollars that we do not have.”

The acquisition of the trademark comes nearly a month after Kanye West had models and conservative/political commentator Candace Owens wear ‘White Lives Matter’ T-shirts during the launch of his new Yeezy line at Paris Fashion Week in October.

candace owens, kanye west

After his t-shirt debut, the “All Falls Down” rapper responded to the criticism by calling the Black Lives Matter movement a “scam.” In a now-deleted Instagram post, Kanye wrote:

“EVERYONE KNOWS BLACK LIVES MATTER WAS A SCAM. NOW IT’S OVER. YOU’RE WELCOME.”

He later said in an interview that he thought the shirt’s message was “funny” and “obvious.”

Kanye West

Podcast host Ramses Ja revealed that Kanye West has not reached out to him or his attorneys since the trademark of ‘WLM.’

“It’s hurtful, but it’s not something that was unexpected because I know that Kanye has been moving in this direction for some time. I do my best to try to remember the Kanye that I knew in ’04 and ’05. The Kanye that said George Bush doesn’t care about Black people.”

As previously reported, Kanye West has been facing a domino effect of terminated partnerships in recent weeks due to his controversial comments about George Floyd’s death, Black people, and antisemitic remarks. The 45-year-old lost his billionaire status due to Adidas terminating their fashion collaboration — Adidas Yeezy — with him.