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If Ye aka Kanye West is still hell-bent on selling products with the “White Lives Matter” trademark, the radio hosts who own it would consider offers to sell – for a steep price.
According to a recent interview, Civic Cipher radio host Ramses Ja spoke plainly about his and co-host Quinton Ward’s ownership of the highly controversial trademark. He was asked about his response if Ye or someone else approached them to sell the trademark and what that price would have to be. “Well, it’s important to bear in mind that we’re not soliciting that, we’re not anticipating that as an outcome,” Ja began. He went on to state that if an interested party quoted a price of $1 billion dollars or more, they would consider it.
“We were tasked with weighing what that number could be. We haven’t talked about it, but a billion dollars might bring more good in terms of combatting voter suppression, and environmental racism,” he said to TMZ. Ja was then asked directly if they would sue Ye if he were to sell t-shirts with “White Lives Matter” on them. “We have a lawyer who is tasked to pursue legal action against anyone who infringes on our trademarked material,” he said. Ja maintains that merchandise with that trademark cannot be sold in the United States without their granting approval.
In another interview with Linsey Davis on ABC, Ward spoke of the feelings he had seeing West wear clothing with “White Lives Matter” on it. “It was jarring. It wakes up a trauma from the summer that the entire world seemed to mourn the death of George Floyd,” he said. “I was disappointed.”
Ja and Ward made headlines last week after it was revealed that they were the owners of the “White Lives Matter” trademark. The Phoenix, Arizona-based hosts were gifted the trademark by an anonymous donor in the middle of September. West unveiled the shirts with the phrase at his YZY Season 9 show at Paris Fashion Week on Oct. 3, which saw conservative firebrand Candace Owens in attendance. Since then, the “Father Stretch My Hands” rapper has been awash in backlash over a tirade of antisemitic comments which has led his social media accounts to be locked and many companies to sever ties with him including adidas and Gap.
