21 Savage and Drake have made an agreement to settle the lawsuit with Conde Nast, the parent company of Vogue, over a fake magazine cover they used when promoting their recent collaborative album Her Loss. The duo hit the headlines late last year with a series of fake promo materials, including a pretend interview with Howard Stern.
According to an internal memo (per Semafor), Will Bowes, the general counsel of Conde Nast, told their staff that the company had reached an “undisclosed” agreement that will be used to “bolster our ongoing creative output, including Vogue editorial.”
Bowes said, “As a creative company, we of course understand our brands may from time to time be referenced in other creative works. In this instance, however, it was clear to us that Drake and 21 Savage leveraged Vogue’s reputation for their own commercial purposes and, in the process, confused audiences who trust Vogue as the authoritative voice on fashion and culture.”
The fashion magazine had filed a lawsuit against Drake and Savage in November last year, claiming that the duo had misled their fans and Vogue readers into thinking that the magazine would actually be printing a special copy celebrating the release of Her Loss after the rapper’s announced it on Instagram.
Drake wrote on the social media platform, “Me and my brother on newsstands tomorrow. Thanks @voguemagazine and Anna Wintour for the love and support on this historic moment.” Conde Nast insisted that the editor-in-chief, Anna Wintour, did not “endorse” the album, despite Drake’s claims.
Shortly after the post, Judge Jed Rakoff prevented the rapping dup from “using, displaying, dissenting, or distributing” the false Vogue cover, claiming that they were violating the policies surrounding Conde Nast’s trademarks while “misleading consumers” and “deceiving the public”. Drake soon deleted the post. Now it looks like the whole ordeal has been settled.
