Musician and rapper Flavor Flav, the co-founder of Public Enemy, has sent a cease-and-desist letter to presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. Flavor Fav wants to stop his bandmate Chuck D from performing under the name Public Enemy Radio at Bernie's rally in Los Angeles on Sunday, according to reports.
The letter from the singer's lawyer addressed to the Sanders campaign claimed the rally was piggybacking off Flav's "image" and using an "unauthorized likeness" for promotion purposes despite him not endorsing "any political candidate."
"The planned performance will only be Chuck D of Public Enemy, it will not be a performance by Public Enemy. Those who truly know what Public Enemy stands for know what time it is, there is no Public Enemy without Flavor Flav," wrote Flav's lawyer Matthew Friedman in the letter obtained by Rolling Stone.
"The continued publicizing of this grossly misleading narrative is, at a minimum, careless and irresponsible if not intentionally misleading," he added.
At the bottom of the cease-and-desist letter, Flav added a handwritten note that said: "Hey Bernie, don't do this."
A lawyer representing Chuck D said his client has the legal right to perform as Public Enemy, as he was allegedly the sole owner of the Public Enemy trademark.
"He originally drew the logo himself in the mid-80s, is also the creative visionary and the group's primary songwriter, having written Flavor's most memorable lines," the lawyer said.
Chuck D took to Twitter to vent.
"It's not about BERNIE with Flav," he wrote. "he don't know the difference between BarrySanders or BernieSanders he don't know either. FLAV refused to support @Sankofa after @harrybelafonte inducted us. He don't do that."
In a separate post, the rapper accused Flav of being greedy.
"If there was a $bag, Flav would've been there front & center. He will NOT do free benefit shows," he wrote.
Zoe Papadakis ✉
Zoe Papadakis is a Newsmax writer based in South Africa with two decades of experience specializing in media and entertainment. She has been in the news industry as a reporter, writer and editor for newspapers, magazine and websites.
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