21 Savage Tells FreakNik Festival To 'Sit Down' After Lawsuit Threat Over Birthday Party
Atlanta, GA – 21 Savage celebrated his 29th birthday with a Freaknik-themed birthday party on Friday night (October 22), but some people weren’t feeling the celebration.
On Sunday (October 24), a spokesperson for the Freaknik Festival called 21 Savage out for going through with the plans of his themed party. According to reports, organizers were not happy with the Freaknik name being used and asked 21 to either acknowledge the legendary festival or change the name of his party altogether. The Savage Mode II rapper did neither.
“Saw @21savageand @megameezy #Freaknik21 last night at @underground_atlanta and looked like a super dope event,” wrote the spokesperson on Twitter. “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
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 ?
— FreakNik Festival (@FreaknikFest) October 24, 2021
They continued, “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 the suit after we file it, know that we tried to work it out very easily beforehand.”
21 Savage saw the tweet and let the festival organizers know he doesn’t take threats lightly. “Y’all better sit down somewhere,” he wrote back on Monday (October 25).
Y’all better sit down somewhere https://t.co/EK4aP4phXg
— Saint Laurent Don (@21savage) October 25, 2021
The Freaknik spokesperson returned, doubling down on threatening to sue by sharing a copy of their trademark filing, as well as a text conversation with 21 Savage’s manager, who promised to change the name of the party. Freaknik is trademarked by After 9 Partners, LLC.
The exchange got even more heated when After 9 Partners jumped into the conversation on Twitter. They apparently don’t like how celebrities feel they’re above the law.
“Celebrities think they are above the law but CELEBRITIES BE QUICK TO SUE PEOPLE WHO USE THEIR NAME OR THEIR FACE WITHOUT THEIR PERMISSION smdh,” they tweeted.
Celebrities think they are above the law but CELEBRITIES BE QUICK TO SUE PEOPLE WHO USE THEIR NAME OR THEIR FACE WITHOUT THEIR PERMISSION smdh. https://t.co/DaiseHO5lM
— After 9 Partners, LLC (@after9partners) October 25, 2021
@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 ??♂️ pic.twitter.com/G3qVxKhDXx
— After 9 Partners, LLC (@after9partners) October 25, 2021
21 has yet to issue another response to the controversy, but the Freaknik Festival organizers are adamant about seeking legal action. They ran into a similar situation with Saweetie for her Freaknik-themed birthday party in July, but didn’t feel her event was as large scale as 21’s. Saweetie also didn’t promote the event in Atlanta, the festival’s hometown.
“We saw @saweetie event earlier this year and thought it was dope…we learned about it afterwards too and she didn’t promote it in Atlanta,” they wrote on Instagram. “We saw @quavohuncho and @yungmiami305 and we love it, but haven’t decided what we want to do. But @21savage and @megameezy event was another level.”
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Despite the legal implications of his party, 21 Savage certainly seemed to enjoy his 29th birthday having been gifted a brand new custom Ram 1500 TRX from his friend and collaborator Young Thug. The truck features 21 Savage logos decorating the paintwork while the inside has 21’s face stitched into the headrests.