Lou Koller and Pete Koller of Sick of it All.
Photo by Mark Horton/Getty Images
Sick of It All are suing Mobb Deep and Supreme for copyright infringement, Billboard reports. The lawsuit was filed in the hardcore band's native New York on October 11; Sick of It All claim that the band's "Alleyway Crew dragon" logo was plagiarized for a collaboration between the rap duo and the streetwear brand.
The case names Supreme’s owner Chapter 4 Corp alongside a corporate entity owned by Havoc and the estate of Prodigy (the rapper died in 2017), claiming that the logo featured on the Supreme x Mobb Deep T-shirts and caps is "virtually identical" to the one they have used since 1987.
Sick of It All have sent Mobb Deep cease and desist letters over use of the logo before, once in 1997 and again in 2003 when they released their Free Agents: The Murda Mixtape.
"This is not the first time that plaintiff has objected to Mobb Deep’s use of a logo substantially identical to plaintiff’s mark," wrote lawyers for Bush Baby Zamagate Inc., the company that owns Sick of It All’s intellectual property. "Immediately prior to the institution of this lawsuit, plaintiff demanded that defendants cease use of their infringing logo and provide an accounting to plaintiff of sales of the infringing goods. Defendants refused to comply with those demands.”
In 2011 Prodigy told Mishka NYC that he first came across the logo as a teenager when he visited a tattoo parlor in New York. "There was this dragon on the wall and I didn’t know what it was, I just thought it looked ill, I was mad young and I had always wanted something on my hand," Prodigy said at the time. "I prolly seen it on some of those L.A. gang movies like Colors. I thought’d be cool, it’d look like some tough shit. So I told the dude put that on my hand. When me and Hav started Mobb Deep, we turned it into the lil clique thing."
