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Who is the real Slim Shady?
American rapper and record producer Eminem, born Marshall Bruce Mathers III, was born in 1972 in Missouri, USA. He rose to fame in the late 90s, and has since acquired over 67 million monthly listeners on Spotify, and has released over 120 songs. He has been quoted saying that his stage name ‘The Real Slim Shady’ came to him while on the toilet; a place where he has found his creative thoughts to be present. After creating this name, Eminem debuted the song titled ‘The Real Slim Shady’ on this third album in 2000, and won a Grammy award for Best Rap Solo Performance in 2001. It also was his first song to reach number 1 in the UK, and peaked at number 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 and is known as the quintessential Eminem song.
The music video for this song has since gained over 750 million views on YouTube, and over 1.2 billion streams on Spotify. It is evident that you would have to be living under a rock to have not heard about the legend that is Slim Shady, A.K.A Eminem.
Since the song’s release, rapper Eminem has gone by the name ‘Shady’, and even owns the Trademarks ‘Shady’, ‘Shady Limited’ and ‘Slim Shady’ for the use of merchandise, entertainment services and music. It is said that ‘Shady’ has invested a “substantial amount of time, effort and money in ensuring the high quality of goods and services provided under the marks, as well as its promotion.”
This Trademark has recently come into the spotlight after a YOUNG podcast titled ‘Reasonably Shady’ filed to Trademark the name.
Who is Reasonably Shady?
Gizelle Bryant, 52, and Robyn Dixon, 43, are stars from the Real Housewives of Potomac. The show started in 2016, and has filmed and released 7 seasons so far based in Maryland, USA. It has shot the women to fame, and helped in the birth of their podcast.
‘Reasonably Shady’ was started by the co-hosts in 2021, and has since recorded and released 109 episodes, has 4.1k subscribers on YouTube, and has been rated 4.6 stars on Spotify. The show’s bio states that the episodes include ‘conversations about being fearless women as the pair recount stories from their exciting lives.’ They delve into their side businesses, and increase their listeners by hosting live performances and discussions which cover topics including ‘dating, relationships, marriage, entrepreneurs, motherhood, style, glam, current events and more.’
The pair have recently also celebrated receiving 5 million downloads of their podcast episodes in less than two years. Robyn posted on Instagram about the achievement saying ‘SOOO EXCITED! Less than two years and our little @reasonablyshady podcast has over 5 MILLION downloads.’ She thanks her listeners for their love and support, as well as I Heart Radio, being the producers of the show. The podcast was also nominated for Outstanding Arts and Entertainment Podcast at the 53rd NAACP (U.S.-based National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People) Image Awards in 2022.
Trademark issues:
Bryant and Dixon filed their trademark application for ‘Reasonably Shady’ with the intention to use it on merchandise including lip gloss, hats, sweatshirts, jackets, socks and water bottles. Merchandise, bar the lip gloss, resembles similar to previously and currently existing merchandise that Eminem has his Trademark featured on.
A mere two weeks later, rapper Eminem and his legal team, filed an opposition on February 14th to the pair’s registration application, with the details of the opposition revealed on Monday 21st February. The opposition states that the rapper’s brand and reputation would be damaged if the ‘Reasonably Shady’ Trademark were to be granted. The rapper continued by outlining that it could cause ‘confusion in the minds of the consumers’ who know the word ‘Shady’ to only be in relation to the rapper, as he has used this since 1998. The opposition filing described how the applicant’s mark resembles the opposer’s marks in terms of ‘appearance, sound and commercial impressions if they are applied to the applicant’s goods, to cause confusion, mistake and to deceive.’
The female pair are required to respond to the opposition filing by March 26th, but have yet to make any comment to their listeners and followers separate to this.
This comes at a time where Eminem is currently working alongside fellow rapper 50 Cent, 47, to create a TV show based around his 2002 semi-autobiography film ‘8 Mile’, so there are unwanted legal issues alongside his busy schedule.
Existing as one of the most famous rappers of our time, and having begun his career long before this podcast existed, and its subsequent trademark request, it would seem probable that The Real Slim Shady will win this dispute. But, with no official response made so far, it is anyone’s guess as to the next actions for either party.
By Elysia Shirley – final year LLB student, A-Level & Foundation Law teacher.
