Cardi B Is Trademarking “Okurr,” But Who Really Created it?

Cardi B is trademarking "Okurrr." The Los Angeles Times reported Friday that the rapper had filed paperwork with the United States Patent and Trademark Office to "to reserve the catchphrase for use on 'paper goods, namely paper cups and posters,' through her cosmetics company Washpoppin Inc. Page Six says there's also an application for "Okurr" and the trademark would extend to clothing. And while it's a cute idea, it's a move that has sparked a conversation about who, exactly, should be profiting off the word.

To be clear: the idea that someone "invented okurr," is hard to prove. The word is, basically, "okay" with a tongue trill, which anyone can think of. That said, it's certainly received a boost or been introduced to segments of the mainstream by quite a few notable personalities over the last decade, of which Cardi is the latest, cementing it as her trademark of sorts (the Super Bowl Pepsi commercial being her crowning glory).

But before Cardi brought the fun saying to the forefront, there was one Ms. Khloe Kardashian. On Keeping Up With the Kardashians, the reality star used okurr heavily -- so heavily, in fact, that her siblings caught on. At the time, the phrase got so connected with her in popular culture, that when Cardi began using it, fans accused the rapper of impersonating the Kardashians. But sis ...

Any true RuPaul's Drag Race fan knows that neither Cardi nor the Kardashians were the first to trill their tongue on television. Laganja Estranja had used the same signature on season six of the show in 2014. Cardi B seemed to acknowledge her predecessor over the weekend on Twitter: "Can I please do my iconic drop in the commercial for your new #Okurrr merch?!?" Estranja tweeted, referring to the dip she did for her work room entrance. "I was once made fun of for using this word, and now you can help me come full circle."

"Shiiiiiettt you will be the first I call but you gotta teach me how to do the drop first with out me breakin my hip," Cardi responded. Estranja followed up on the conversation with another tweet.

"Can we stop the negative comments?!?" she wrote, referring to a string of criticism pointing out that Cardi hadn't come up with the phrase and was stealing it from Estranja, the Kardashians, or someone else. "The word #okurrr originated from the ballroom scene, but Cardi was smart enough to capitalize on it! Props to ya MAWMA!!"

There's a lot to unpack there, but first: did okurr come from ballroom? In 2008, Rodney Chester playing Alex Kirby in Noah's Arc: Jumping the Broom (a feature-length continuation of the Logo series) said okurr. On Instagram, Noah's Arc creator Patrik-Ian Polk credits Chester with having created the term. Maybe he did. Maybe he heard it from someone else. That person could have been from the ballroom community -- the show included quite a few ballroom moments -- or they could have just been Black. While ballroom is, in its origins, intrinsically Black and queer, everything Black and queer is not necessarily ballroom. So, to put it all to rest, we asked him.