Ja and Ward revealed that they acquired the trademark while appearing on the radio station Real 92.3.

“We are the holder of the federal trademark for White Lives Matter,” Ja said. “If you want to sell that shirt, you have to come knock on my door or you have to face Morris, my lawyer.”

Though the Phoenix presenters aren’t looking to make a quick buck from the trademark, they did say that a potential buyer, may that be Ye or anyone else, would need to cough up $1 billion minimum to even have them consider selling.

Ja explained on air that the pair could give back to, and uplift the Black community, with that kind of money; which is a compelling consideration to keep in mind when thinking about selling. However, he also added that the pair would still need to think about whether selling would be the right move morally.

According to TMZ, the trademark was initially filed by a listener of the duo’s weekly racial justice radio show, Civic Cipher. The listener’s identity is unknown. Since then, ownership has been transferred to Ja and Ward, who also noted that any money made from the use of the phrase has been invested in Black and brown communities.

“We know that phrases like ‘White Lives Matter,’ ‘All Lives Matter,’ and ‘Blue Lives Matter’ continue to cause harm and to dilute the narrative that was intended to be established by Black Lives Matter,” Ja said.

He added that “those phrases are all piggybacking off of Black people’s creativity and efforts, so we’re all for helping to use this as a measure to allow Black people to retain a little bit of ownership.”

Coming up with the billion-dollar asking price may be tricky for the rapper.

As Blavity previously reported, the termination of Ye’s deal with Adidas made the rapper’s net worth take a major hit. Ye is no longer a billionaire, and his new net worth is around $400 million dollars. Plus, acquiring new partnerships will be no easy task for the father of four, as he’s burned a lot of bridges with his recent antisemitic comments.