Chi-Rock Nation Defeats Twista, Gives Shout Out To Chicagoist

By Scott Smith in Arts & Entertainment on Dec 22, 2005 5:55PM

The beef between Chicago rapper Twista (a.k.a. Carl Mitchell) and Chi-Rock Nation C.E.O. Faheem Shabazz (a.k.a. BigFa) has been resolved. Not through a Thunderdome-style battle royale, but via a letter sent by Twista’s lawyers.

As we told you last month, BigFa accused Twista of copyright infringement for using the name “Chi-Rock Entertainment” in a variety of planned business ventures. BigFa is a member of the Chi-Rock Nation collective and objected to Twista’s attempts to “honor” the organization and questioned how Twista “could pay tribute if you're stealing our treasured name.”

In a letter dated December 7th, Twista’s lawyer stated that no products had been released under the “Chi-Roc” name and that his client was abandoning all claims to the trademark.

In a press release, BigFa said that Chi-Rock “won the battle” despite going up against a “star” and the media that loves him. BigFa thanked many of the organizations who gave “a voice to the voiceless” in this fight including BET.com, Thuglife Army, and Chicagoist (9th graf).

(Go ahead and take a look at that sentence again because it’s the first and last time you’re ever going to see us lumped in with Thuglife Army).

In our original post, we questioned the timing of the fight, but noted that Twista’s claim to the name seemed dubious at best since BigFa owned all rights after an “involuntary dissolution” of Chi-Rock Entertainment in October. On his website, BigFa laments he “spent loot to keep what we already owned.”