Dope frontman Edsel Dope has responded to the recent news that Public Enemy vocalist Chuck D and The Doors drummer John Densmore have launched a new musical venture dubbed doPE. The two Rock & Roll Hall Of Famers recently announced that outfit, which had been gestating for roughly a decade. That duo have scheduled an April 18th release date (aka ‘Record Store Day‘) for their debut album “no country for old men“, with a first single, “every tick tick tick‘ on the horizon.
Taking to his social media while clad in a The Doors hat and a Public Enemy shirt today, January 26th, Edsel asserted that he remains the holder of the Dope trademark, but was willing to work towards some type of agreement. He offered the following:
“Yooooooo!
I am a huge fan of Chuck D, Public Enemy, and the Doors, so the last thing that I want to do is interrupt a creative endeavor from two legends that I admire and respect.
However, it is important for me to highlight the 25 years I have devoted to building a band/brand, which has found a good bit of success and built a sizable fan base around the globe.
Those 4 letters “dope” have been tattooed on my knuckles since 1998.
I appropriately registered the artist name dope and I have owned the Trademark, ever since I hit the scene, more than 25 years ago…
Unfortunately for Chuck and John, choosing to call themselves doPE would invite a good bit of market confusion, especially on the streaming services like Spotify, where I have more than a million monthly listeners, along with several hundred million combined streams…
The paperwork is up to date, and my rights regarding the name are indisputable.
Next to the two of you, I humbly consider myself “the little guy”.
So if YOU TWO LEGENDS are committed to using MY FOUR LETTERS, Please hit me up directly, as I would love to be part of some form of collaborative effort with you.
I know every word from Apocalypse 91 & I have smoked more weed listening to The Doors than one could ever imagine.
LOVE AND RESPECT TO YOU BOTH!
–Edsel Dope“
As a perk of Edsel Dope moonlighting as Xer0, the masked vocalist of Static-X, Dope have remained consistently active on the road. The group can often be seen out serving as the opening act for the latter platinum-selling industrial metal outfit.
