Whatever fallout came as a result of the canceled Freedom 250 concerts on the National Mall in Washington this summer, we can add a lawsuit that otherwise might not have happened. One prominent figure in that D.C. controversy, Freedom Williams, who made newsmaking statements in his role as frontman for the touring edition of C+C Music Factory, has been sued by the act’s surviving co-founder, Robert Clivillés, in the wake of the political fracas. The core issues of the lawsuit are unrelated to what happened with the Trump-related concert pullouts and cancellations.
But Clivillés makes it clear in his lawsuit that a contentious, profanity-filled video Williams published on social media in the midst of the controversy was a last straw when it came to pushing him to file suit over rifts that go back three decades or more. Clivillés is acting as his own attorney in the suit, which was filed Aug. 14 in the eastern district of New York in United States District Court. He charges Williams with defamation, fraud, trademark infringement, fraud, unfair competition and breach of contract, among other ills, and asks for cancellation of the trademark Williams now holds as well as compensatory and punitive damages adding up to $30 million.
Clivillés had been warning of his intention to sue Williams for weeks. On Sunday, he posted on social media a video filmed by a process server delivering papers to a figure identified as Williams, who initially keeps walking down the sidewalk as the server drops the paperwork on the ground, before finally agreeing to accept the documents. Williams’ face is not seen in the footage.
The recent video posted by Williams amid the Trump/Freedom 250 controversy comes up for description. In this video… Williams made statements invoking Adolf Hitler, used repeated racial slurs, and directed vulgar and sexually degrading language at members of the public. Plaintiff Clivilles had no warning of and no input into these statements and was forced to launch a competing official C+C Music Factory Instagram account to publicly disavow Williams’ conduct.” Clivillés writes that he issued a public legal warning at that time for Williams to stop representing himself with the group name, but rather than back off, Williams allegedly doubled down on June 12 by issuing a new single, “Into the Future,” under the C+C Music Factory name.
Variety has been unable to reach Clivillés or Williams for comment on the dispute and lawsuit. Throughout the suit, Clivillés makes a point in the suit of reaffirming that the letters F or W do not appear in C+C, and that he and the late David Cole (who died in 1995) were the sole members of the outfit, which broke through in 1990 with the No. 1 smash “Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now),” succeeded the following year by the top 10 hits “Here We Go (Let’s Rock & Roll)” and “Things That Make You Go Hmmm…” Williams was listed as a featured artist on all three of those singles, alongside vocalists Martha Wash and Zelma Davis, who also got featured credit. It is Clivillés’ contention that giving Williams and the others featured billing was a way of marking them as guests, as opposed to group members, as is common in pop music.
While Clivillés and Cole were primarily producer-writers, he makes the case that they were not unlike famous producers like Quincy Jones who issued albums under their own name while bringing in different singers. In Clivillés’ telling, Williams had a production contract with him and Cole, but in mid-1991, around the time “Things That Make You Go Hmmm…” was released, “Williams demanded his release from the 1990 Agreement, stating he did not want to be associated with C+C Music Factory or with Clivillés and Cole’s enterprises going forward. He immediately stopped touring with the group.
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