{"id":857113,"date":"2026-09-22T23:02:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-22T23:02:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/857113\/"},"modified":"2026-09-22T23:02:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-22T23:02:12","slug":"outkast-sues-oakland-rapper-ovrkast-over-similar-name","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/857113\/","title":{"rendered":"OutKast Sues Oakland Rapper Ovrkast Over Similar Name"},"content":{"rendered":"

The hip-hop legends want the rising artist to stop using his name to promote his shows, merch and music. <\/p>\n

Sep 22, 2026<\/p>\n

Updated 1:52 pm PT<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Ovrkast. outside of Brick and Mortar Music Hall during the Noise Pop Music and Art Festival on Wednesday, Feb. 22, 2023.\u00a0(Estefany Gonzalez for KQED)<\/p>\n

Hip-hop legends OutKast have sued rising Bay Area rapper-producer ovrkast.<\/a>, real name Silas Wilson, for trademark infringement because of similarities in their names, and are using Wilson\u2019s own words from an interview as evidence.\u00a0<\/p>\n

OutKast filed the case in federal court in Georgia on Sept. 16, accusing Wilson of violating an agreement to phase out his use of the ovrkast. name. OutKast, the Atlanta duo composed of Big Boi (Antwan Patton) and Andr\u00e9 3000 (Andr\u00e9 Benjamin), first sent Wilson a cease and desist in June 2025.<\/p>\n

According to court documents, the two parties came to an agreement that Wilson would change his name to Overkxst by July 15, 2026, and stop using the name ovrkast. on social media, streaming platforms, merch and other places where he promotes his shows and music. As of publication time, his Instagram is still up as ovrkast., and he released a new single under the name \u2014 \u201cKnock\u201d featuring Samara Cyn and MAVI \u2014 on Sept. 10.\u00a0<\/p>\n

One of the pieces of evidence in the case is a 2025 Rolling Stone interview <\/a>with Wilson where he talks about his rise from Oakland\u2019s underground hip-hop scene to producing for Drake and other big names. In the interview, Wilson said his name has caused confusion among hip-hop fans: \u201cThe worst thing I get is like, \u2018The n\u2014 think he OutKast,\u2019\u201d he said at the time. \u201cIt\u2019s like, \u2018No, bro. I wasn\u2019t even thinking about OutKast.\u2019 Mad n\u2014s do that shit. They read Ovrkast [as] OutKast. They\u2019re like, oh my God, I thought they said OutKast. And it\u2019s like, it don\u2019t, so\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

In the court complaint, OutKast claims the similar names are likely to \u201cdeceive the public into the false belief that the services offered by [Wilson] come from or are otherwise sponsored by, connected with, or affiliated with [OutKast,] which they are not.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wilson didn\u2019t return KQED\u2019s request for comment, but he posted a screenshot of an article about the lawsuit from AllHipHop<\/a>, which first reported on the case. \u201cI\u2019m jus a young Back man trying to get ahead,\u201d he wrote in the comments.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In their court filing, OutKast demanded a jury trial. It\u2019s not the first time the duo has taken an artist to court over similar allegations: They sued EDM due ATLiens, whose name was inspired by OutKast\u2019s 1996 album of the same title, and settled out of court earlier this year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The hip-hop legends want the rising artist to stop using his name to promote his shows, merch and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":857114,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[88,216],"class_list":["post-857113","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/857113","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=857113"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/857113\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/857114"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=857113"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=857113"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=857113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}