Outkast‘s trademark company is suing rapper and producer Ovrkast, claiming he reneged on a deal to stop using the name.
High Schoolers, LLC, the company controlled by André 3000 and Big Boi, filed the complaint on September 16 in the US District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, Atlanta Division, as case no. 1:26-cv-05345.
The lawsuit accuses Silas Wilson, who records as Ovrkast, of trademark infringement, unfair competition, dilution, and breach of contract, among other claims across 10 counts.
Wilson, a 28-year-old rapper and producer raised in Oakland and now based in New York, broke through on Earl Sweatshirt‘s 2019 EP Feet of Clay. He co-produced “Red Button” and “The Shoe Fits” with Lil Yachty on Drake‘s For All the Dogs Scary Hours Edition, and produced “Make Them Pay” with Flywilliums on Drake’s Iceman, released in May.
At the center of the case is an alleged agreement for Wilson to abandon the Ovrkast name by July 15, 2026, and rebrand as OVERKXST.
The complaint can be read in full here.
According to the filing, the case “arises out of Defendant’s improper, willful, unauthorized, and illegal use of the nearly identical OVRKAST mark and breach of his prior agreement to cease use of the same.”
High Schoolers says it was set up by, and is solely controlled by, Antwan Patton (Big Boi) and André Benjamin (André 3000).
The complaint states that Outkast has won six Grammy Awards and sold more than 25 million records since forming in 1993, and notes the duo’s induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in November 2025.
It alleges that Wilson picked his stage name “to trade upon the tremendous fame and goodwill associated with Plaintiff’s OUTKAST name and mark” or, at a minimum, to call the mark to consumers’ minds.
The only instance of actual consumer confusion cited in the complaint comes from Wilson himself, in a July 9, 2025 interview with Rolling Stone, which is attached to the filing.
Asked about dealing with fans and growing fame, Wilson said, according to the complaint: “The worst thing I get is like, ‘The n***a think he Outkast.’ It’s like, ‘No, bro. I wasn’t even thinking about Outkast.’ … They read Ovrkast [as] Outkast.
“They’re like, oh my God, I thought they said Outkast. And it’s like, it don’t, so…”
The complaint notes that the interviewer “did not reference OUTKAST in the question,” and argues: “Defendant’s very own statement confirms that consumers have read, perceived, and understood OVRKAST as OUTKAST.”
Wilson lives in New York, and the complaint sets out why an Atlanta court should hear the case: he sells music into Georgia through YouTube, Spotify, Apple Music, and his Bandcamp page, performed at The Masquerade in Atlanta on July 10, 2025, and agreed to Georgia jurisdiction in the settlement agreement at the heart of the suit.
The filing then sets out how the two sides allegedly reached that deal.
High Schoolers‘ lawyers sent Wilson a cease-and-desist letter on June 18, 2025, demanding that he stop using the Ovrkast name.
During the negotiations that followed, the complaint says, Wilson agreed to permanently drop the name across his website, social media, streaming accounts, domain name, advertising, clothing, and merchandise.
He also agreed to move to OVERKXST, a replacement name that High Schoolers had approved, according to the filing.
On April 7, 2026, Wilson‘s lawyer asked for the switchover deadline to be pushed back to July 15, 2026, the complaint says.
That request allegedly came with an assurance that, if High Schoolers agreed, negotiations would be over and a final settlement could be sent out for signature.
High Schoolers says it accepted the extension and sent over the finalized agreement on April 10, 2026.
Wilson never signed it, according to the complaint.
“Despite the parties’ agreement on all material terms of the Settlement Agreement and negotiation of a full and final settlement agreement, Defendant repeatedly and unnecessarily delayed the execution of the Settlement Agreement for months,” the High Schoolers filing states. “Despite Plaintiff’s repeated follow up efforts, Defendant continued to delay execution and ultimately refused to execute the Settlement Agreement despite having agreed to all of its terms months earlier.”
On July 13, 2026, two days before the deadline, Wilson allegedly asked for the first time to use one of two alternative names instead of OVERKXST.
The complaint says High Schoolers had already rejected one of those names in earlier talks, and that the other was a close variation of a name it had turned down.
A letter followed on August 5, 2026, telling Wilson he was bound by the agreement and giving him until August 11 to stop using the name.
He did not respond and continued to use Ovrkast across his social media accounts, the filing claims.
Because the agreement was never signed, the breach claim will turn on whether a deal finalized between the two sides’ lawyers is binding without Wilson‘s signature.
High Schoolers argues that it is, saying the parties “finalized and memorialized those terms in a written Settlement Agreement accepted by all parties.”
The complaint does not specify a damages figure.
The company is asking the court to permanently bar Wilson from using Ovrkast, or any similar name, and from using any branding “intended to call to mind Plaintiff and/or OUTKAST or any of OUTKAST’s members or works of authorship.”
It also wants Wilson to hand over any profits made from the name, and to pay damages, including trebled or punitive damages, plus the company’s legal fees.
The complaint says Section 5 of the settlement agreement entitles High Schoolers to recover all legal costs of enforcing it.
If the court grants everything it is asking for, Wilson would have to hand over Ovrkast-branded merchandise and promotional materials for destruction, and remove the name from his websites, social media, and any third-party sites.
This is not the first time High Schoolers has gone to court over a name.
In August 2024, the company sued an Atlanta-based EDM duo performing as ATLiens, the title of Outkast‘s 1996 album and its title track, in the same federal court.
That case was settled on undisclosed terms, with a judge dismissing the suit on February 20, 2026, without prejudice to reopening within 90 days if the settlement fell through. It was never reopened.
The Ovrkast suit is the latest in a run of US lawsuits over artist names and titles.
Last month, C+C Music Factory co-founder Robert Clivillés sued rapper Freedom Williams for USD $30 million over his use of the group’s name.
Four days later, metal band Demon Hunter sued Netflix and AEG Presents over the title of the animated film KPop Demon Hunters and its associated concert tour.
Taylor Swift is also defending a trademark claim brought in March by a Las Vegas performer over the title of her album The Life of a Showgirl, as MBW has reported.
Wilson responded to news of the lawsuit on X with a two-word response, “Ouch @Outkast.”Music Business Worldwide
