The fight for the future of C+C Music Factory is officially on.
C+C, the hip-house hitmakers who dominated the early '90s jock jam scene with monolithic bangers like "Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now)" and "Things That Make You Go Hmmm…," took their name from their two founding producers, David Cole and Robert Clivillés. But Freedom Williams, the rapper who appears on many of the group's biggest hits, trademarked the C+C Music Factory name in 2005 and has been steadily touring under the name since the '90s. Civillés has long criticized Williams' stewardship of the name, and now he's legally challenging it.
The conflict flared up this spring when C+C were announced as part of Donald Trump's ill-fated Great American State Fair festivities, part of the Freedom 250 campaign marking the 250th anniversary of the United States. While many artists instantly dropped off the lineup and distanced themselves from Trump, Williams defended his involvement in a viral seven-minute video rant recorded while he was sitting on the toilet, posted to the C+C Music Factory Instagram account he controls.
Clivillés responded by launching his own competing Instagram account for C+C and taking shots at Williams. The rapper was never an official member of C+C Music Factory, just a guest artist, Clivillés wrote, therefore he should not be touring under the name or even putting himself forward as a representative of the brand. Within days, he was threatening to sue Williams for control of the C+C Music Factory trademark. Now he has.
Clivillés, who is acting as his own attorney, filed his lawsuit Friday in the eastern district of New York in United States District Court, Variety reports. He's charging Williams with defamation, fraud, trademark infringement, unfair competition, and breach of contract, asking for the cancellation of the Williams' trademark, and seeking $30 million in punitive damages. The suit explains that Williams' toilet video was the final straw:
In this video… Williams made statements invoking Adolf Hitler, used repeated racial slurs, and directed vulgar and sexually degrading language at members of the public. Plaintiff Clivilles had no warning of and no input into these statements and was forced to launch a competing official C+C Music Factory Instagram account to publicly disavow Williams’ conduct.
The suit alleges that Clivillés and Cole, who died in 1995, were the sole members of C+C Music Factory, and that he and Cole's estate made a formal settlement agreement giving Clivillés exclusive use of the C+C Music Factory name. Per Clivillés' filing, Williams' registered trademark from 2005 was canceled in 2012. He filed again in 2014, affirming "falsely and knowingly that he was the owner of the mark and that no other persons had the right to use the mark in commerce." When he was again granted the registration in 2015, Clivillés' attempts to block it were foiled due to errors by his legal team. He says he was open to letting Williams perform as "Freedom Williams formerly of C+C Music Factory," but Williams only briefly abided by that arrangement.
In footage posted to Instagram Sunday, Clivillés and a process server can be seen delivering a federal summons to a figure identified as Williams, whose face cannot be seen in the video. Watch below.
