Cassper Nyovest Is Taking Legal Action Against Benny Mayengani Over #FillUp Trademark

The rapper claims #FillUp is his trademark.

Cassper Nyovest Is Taking Legal Action Against Benny Mayengani Over #FillUp Trademark
Cassper Nyovest during his Fill Up FNB Stadium concert last year. Photo by Sabelo Mkhabela.

South African rapper Cassper Nyovest isn't too happy that Tsonga music star Benny Mayengani hosted a show named Fill Up Giyani Stadium last weekend. Nyovest feels Mayengani bit his idea. The rapper has been hosting a series of Fill Up concerts; Fill Up The Dome, Fill Up Orlando Stadium and Fill Up FNB Stadium in the past three years.


Nyovest's manager Lerato "TLee" Moiloatold Sowetan that the rapper trademarked the #FillUp franchise and that they have approached a legal team to deal with Mayengani.

"[Cassper Nyovest] spent so many millions building the #FillUp brand, now you want to come and eat from it, and if he does anything about it, he is being a bully or victimizing people," TLee was quoted by Sowetan as saying. "If you don't have permission then you are infringing his copyrights and there are legal implications."

TLee told the newspaper that he did contact the organizer of Fill Up Giyani Stadium, Howard Mushava of Shilubani Holdings, three weeks ago.

Read: Cassper Nyovest Is the Poster Boy For Biting in South African Hip-Hop

"He got a call from me three weeks ago and I was so kind and said it's great that (Fill Up) is inspiring people to do a similar thing, but you can't just create your own chicken in Soweto or where ever, and call it KFC, it's copyright infringement," TLee said.

"Why is it that somebody can just come and steal a black child's idea, and it's okay, we just have to accept it, and if we do something about it legally then we are getting smacks? It's amazing that it's inspiring but it should inspire you to do your own thing and not steal."

Mashava said he did his research a few months back and learned that the idea wasn't trademarked by anyone.

He was quoted as saying, "I checked that word before we started with this concert to check if it's registered. This thing was not actually started by him, it was started by Black Coffee."

Mayengani is preparing to fill up Peter Mokaba Stadium in December, the same month Cassper Nyovest is filling up Moses Mabhida Stadium.

We aren't really sure what to make of this one. It's rich coming from a rapper who has bitten a lot of other people's work—from music videos to songs.

Revisit our coverage of Cassper Nyovest's Fill Up FNB Stadium here.

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