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Compton Rapper Challenges Ryan Lochte's "Jeah!" Trademark
Olympic swimmer and reality TV wannabe Ryan Lochte is going to face some trouble in his quest to trademark his signature catchphrase "Jeah!"
Compton rapper MC Eiht claims that he was using the word long before Lochte arrived on the scene. Eiht tells TMZ that he plans on sending Lochte a cease and desist letter telling him to stop using the phrase. He told the website: "Why try and trademark something his ass didn’t even create? I am mad that he isn’t giving me proper recognition for taking my saying. He is just disrespectful."
He adds that he cares less about the money and more about "respect and the truth." (We've included a particularly "jeah"-heavy rap above.)
Lochte already is selling T-shirts and sunglasses (but we didn't see any grills) on his website with the silly word, and he's filing paperwork to lock down the trademark. His manager says that this is the first that they've heard of MC Eiht's claim.
In this video from 2009, a long, curly-haired Lochte explains that it's a modified version of a word he heard Young Yeezy using:
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