Turns out there won’t be a big trademark lawsuit between Edsel Dope and Rock & Roll Hall of Famers Chuck D and The Doors drummer John Densmore over the use of the name doPE for their side project, as cooler heads prevailed and a settlement was reached between all parties.

As the frontman and founder of industrial band Dope, Edsel Dope has long had a claim to the band name and trademark. So when it was announced earlier this year that Chuck D and Densmore were collaborating under the band name doPE, there was obviously an issue there. They were already planning on releasing their collaborative album no country for old men on April 18, so the wheels were already turning for the use of the doPE name.

Things went south when Edsel Dope publicly took issue with the group’s name. However, it turns out both parties worked things out behind the scenes because Chuck D posted on social media over the weekend that everything was good and they were going to move forward as planned.

“We would like to send a special shout out to Edsel Dope from the band Dope for giving us his blessing, surrounding the trademarked usage of the name Dope for our no country for old men collaboration. We appreciate his love and support.”

For those that aren’t aware, this whole doPE collab goes back to Record Store Day 2014 when Chuck D met Densmore at a panel discussion. Roughly a year later, Chuck D apparently reached out to Densmore about potentially collaborating, stating via email: “You’ve got the beats, I’ve got the rhymes, let’s make doPE.”

According to Chuck D, the name was a mash up of The Doors lowercase logo and Public Enemy’s long-time shorthand, PE.

When the name was announced, Edsel Dope responded with a friendly message, stating that even though he respected the artists involved, he had to protect his trademark.

“Yooooooo! I am a huge fan of Chuck D, Public Enemy, and The Doors, so the last thing that I want to do is interrupt a creative endeavor from two legends that I admire and respect.

“It is important for me to highlight the 25 years I have devoted to building a band/brand, which has found a good bit of success and built a sizable fan base around the globe,” he wrote. “Those 4 letters ‘dope’ have been tattooed on my knuckles since 1998.”

He then stated that he registered the artist name dope and owned the trademark for the last 25 years, with the paperwork all up to date and “indisputable.”

“Choosing to call themselves doPE would invite a good bit of market confusion, especially on the streaming services like Spotify, where I have more than a million monthly listeners, along with several hundred million combined streams…

“Next to the two of you, I humbly consider myself ‘the little guy’. So if YOU TWO LEGENDS are committed to using MY FOUR LETTERS, please hit me up directly, as I would love to be part of some form of collaborative effort with you.

“I know every word from Apocalypse 91 & I have smoked more weed listening to The Doors than one could ever imagine. LOVE AND RESPECT TO YOU BOTH!”

Glad to see everything turned out alright in the end.