Damon Dash has responded to a lawsuit from his former business partner Jay-Z. The Brooklyn rapper claimed that the music executive was trying to steal and sell the copyright to his debut album “Reasonable Doubt” through the digital marketplace SuperFarm as a non-fungible digital token, better known as an NFT.
However, in a new report from TMZ, which broke the news, Dash says the record label he, Jay, and business partner Kareem Burke built together in 1995 has its facts mixed up. Dash, who reportedly owns 1/3 of the iconic record label, says that he was trying to sell his shares of the company.
Now the 50-year-old is calling Jay, his former friend, a “liar” in a statement to Page Six. “He lying. That’s a whole lie. Jay owns one-third of ‘Reasonable Doubt,'” he told the outlet.
Dash said allegations stating that he’s auctioning off one of hip-hop’s most revered projects as an NFT “are not true.” He continued, “I’m not running around to different places trying to auction off ‘Reasonable Doubt.’ I’ve been working with one platform, and that’s SuperFarm. And the thing is I own a third of Roc-A-Fella Records, and I can sell my third if I feel like it.”
As previously reported, the lawsuit, which Jay’s lawyer Alex Spiro filed in New York’s Southern District Court, accused Dash of “frantically scouting for another venue to make the sale. … The sale of this irreplaceable asset must be stopped before it is too late, and Dash must be held accountable for his theft.”
However, the Harlem native told Page Six the suit was only filed because he declined the “Big Pimpin'” emcee’s “crackhead deal” of $1.5 million to buy him out. “It is the same f–king game. It just seems like they so mad if I get money. I don’t know why, but why can’t I sell my third to whoever I want, whenever I want? I don’t have to ask,” he said. “… He [Jay] don’t want nobody to eat but him. The real issue is [he has to] to compromise a man’s reputation for no reason.”
Dash later went on accused the Roc Nation founder of being controlling. “He’s got ‘only one man to eat’ syndrome and ‘everybody else got to work for him’ syndrome and ‘kiss the ring, and we’re gonna mess up his reputation’ syndrome if you look under the hood. It continues to happen,” he said. He expressed disappointment that Jay-Z would accuse him of wrongdoing on such a large platform and that “whoever believes that s–t is a sucker. I got a bridge I can sell you too.”
Jay and Dash’s rift stems way back to the early 2000s following reports of differences over their label’s future direction. While Jay took the job title as president of Def Jam, Dash made a few rearrangements himself at Roc-A-Fella, appointing rappers Cam’ron and Beanie Sigel as vice presidents. Ultimately the label crumbled, as so did the friendship. Jay has yet to respond to Dash’s remarks as of this writing.
