It was just over a year ago that Jon Solomon filled us in on Diamond Dallas Page’s laughable copyright infringement suit against Jay-Z. Vibe’s Bonami Jones follows up (link taken from Idolator)
A federal judge added the owners of Rocawear to a lawsuit that originally claimed that the Def Jam CEO stole his trademark œdynasty sign from Page.
Jay-Z™s œdynasty sign has become a staple of pop culture. Athletes are frequently seen throwing the “diamond up”. Page says, however, that those people are co-opting his sign.
I’m not sure who could be a greater expert on co-opting. During the height of his WCW fame, Page’s entry music was a knockoff of “Smells Like Teen Spirit” so hamfisted, even The Vines would’ve been embarrassed to play it. During his sad, final days in WWE, Page was assigned the character of an unconvincing motivational speaker, a character seemingly lifted straight from Jason Alexander’s short-lived “Bob Patterson” sitcom.
I guess the lesson to be learned here is that if you’re gonna rip someone off, better to make it a cultural icon like Kurt Cobain rather than a TV character from a show that was cancelled after one episode. I’m not sure where Jay-Z fits into all of this, but as long as he limits his DDP co-opting to the diamond cutter and steers very clear of Yoga For Regular Guys, I’m not really bothered.