Aussie musician Allday has clarified his stance after threatening to pursue legal action against a K-pop band and saying the genre “sucks” on social media.
ICYMI, the rapper — known off-stage as Tomas Henry Gaynor — took to Facebook last week after discovering the emergence of a Korean five-piece band named Allday Project.
Sharing a screenshot of a news article about the group, Allday said he had been asked repeatedly about the band before emphasising that he has “a trademark on the name Allday”.
“Maybe I don’t have 20 billion streams like that kpop shit which mostly sucks by the way, but I do exist and own the trademark to my name,” he wrote.
“Prepare for the greatest legal battle of all time.”
In the comments section, Allday went on to criticise K-pop and say fans of the genre “may be entitled to compensation for having lead in your drinking water”.
The musician has now confirmed he is intent on pursuing some kind of legal response to Allday Project, despite some initial confusion around the seriousness of his legal plans given the tone of the posts.
“I was kind of joking/exaggerating to say ‘biggest legal battle’ or whatever,” Allday told PEDESTRIAN.TV in a statement.
“But I think the name Allday Project is too close to Allday, because it doesn’t really differentiate it in any way.”
As for why he spoke out about the alleged trademark issue, Allday said the K-pop band’s record label, the South Korean-based The Black Label, is an example of the “corporate slop” that has “crush[ed]” the efforts of “actual working artists”.
“It’s a classic case of ‘we are a mega corporation, we gave it a quick Google and the artist with a similar name is too small for us to care,’” Allday said.
“Corporate slop crushing actual working artists once again.”
In terms of next steps, Allday told P.TV that his lawyer “is looking at” whether there is a case for trademark infringement, adding his legal team is also working to “protect the trademark” of his stage name in Australia and the US.
According to IP Australia — the government agency in charge of intellectual property law — Allday does have his musician name registered as of 2021, and it’s not due for renewal until 2030.
Allday’s statement adds to previous comments he reportedly made over the weekend after sharing the original Facebook post.
Allday reportedly took to his Instagram stories to reflect on “getting so much hate” for the Facebook message, per AllKPop.com, while The Korea Times claimed that the rapper shared an Instagram Stories video saying he would “drop my lawsuit” if he could join the band and replace one of its members.
“If I can be in the band, ALLDAY PROJECT, I will drop my lawsuit, which I’m definitely going to win, by the way,” Allday reportedly said in the video.
“That guy called Tarzzan has to be kicked out of the band. I want to be the main guy,” he added in reference to the frontman, who forms the group alongside Annie Moon, Bailey, Woochan and Youngseo.
The K-pop group made their debut earlier this month with the single “Famous”, which was released on June 23.
Lead image: Instagram
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