LeBron James‘ hip-hop fandom is well known, so it came as little surprise when one of his Nike LeBron 23 collections was named after the Meek Mill song and album “Dreams and Nightmares.” That is, rather, unless you were the man behind the source material.
Meek Mill took to Twitter/X Tuesday to express his displeasure with Nike for using the moniker commonly associated with him. “So Nike just gone take my whole brand and mash it up with LeBron[?]” he wrote. “What is this … why wouldn’t anyone holler at me about this? I thought the sneaks was fake?”
The product page for the Nike LeBron 23 “Dreams and Nightmares.”
As the booming opener to his 2012 album of the same name, “Dreams and Nightmares” is popular in the worlds of both music and sports. Pitchfork put it at no. 92 for its list of the best songs of the 2010s, and it served as an anthem for the Philadelphia Eagles’ Super Bowl run in 2018, with the team even walking out to it for their on-field introduction.
Meek Mill’s record label, Dream Chasers, filed a trademark application for the wordmark “Dreams and Nightmares” just eight days ago.
The LeBron 23 “Dreams and Nightmares” released Tuesday as part of Nike’s ongoing series of 23 colorways tied to different moments in James’ career. As with all the other sneakers, a coordinating basketball and graphic T-shirt went up for sale.
This particular tee features similar artwork to the Philadelphia rapper’s “Dream Chasers 3” mixtape cover. The cover features a split image of Meek Mill’s face and that of a lion, while the graphic puts James’ face alongside the big cat’s.
Meek Mill called out the T-shirt as well, saying, “My AI graphics are better btw.”
As of publishing time, error pages load upon trying to click on the link for the LeBron 23 “Dreams and Nightmares” on Nike’s website. Direct links to the product are still working, however.
Footwear News has reached out to Nike for comment.