Retired daredevil Evel Knievel is suing Kanye West, claiming the rapper ripped off his trademarked look in a recent music video in which the performer, using the handle "Evel Kanyevel," wears a red, white, and blue jumpsuit during a failed rocket ride over a gorge. Knievel, 68, charges that West copied his look down to a distinctive "EK" belt buckle in the video for "Touch The Sky," a single off his hit album "Late Registration." An excerpt from Knievel’s trademark infringement lawsuit, which was filed last Friday in U.S. District Court in Tampa, Florida, can be found below. Included as an exhibit to the complaint is a copy of a September 1974 Sports Illustrated cover showing Knievel–who was then preparing to jump Idaho’s Snake River Canyon on a rocket-powered contraption–in his trademark jumpsuit. As seen in the video still at right, the 29-year-old West’s outfit appears to be modeled on the Knievel threads. The lawsuit, which does not specify monetary damages, also names as defendants West’s record label and Chris Milk, director of the video, which debuted on MTV in February.
The Smoking Gun (check out TSG to read the lawsuit)
I think Evil has a case, don’t you?
