damon dash
A federal judge is refusing to wade into whether Jay-Z can use copyright termination to retake control of the rights to his debut album Reasonable Doubt — meaning that the complex issue won’t be resolved before a court-ordered auction of Damon Dash’s one-third stake in the company that owns the album.
The judge had been asked to decide that tricky question because of allegations that Jay-Z was using “false” threats of a looming termination to drive down the auction price for Dash’s stake in Roc-A-Fella Records Inc., which controls the rights to the famous album.
But in a ruling Monday (Sept. 30), Judge Robert W. Lehrburger flatly refused to do so — saying he had no legal power to add complicated questions of copyright law to the already-messy fight over Dash’s stake.
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“The asset that is the subject of the auction is Dash’s one-third interest in RAF [Roc-A-Fella] itself, not the work owned by RAF,” the judge wrote. “The Court does not presently have jurisdiction over the validity of Carter’s copyright termination notice.”
As early as next month, the U.S. Marshals Service will sell off Dash’s 33.3% interest in Roc-A-Fella Inc., an entity whose only real asset is the sound recording copyright to Reasonable Doubt. The rest of the storied label, which Dash co-founded with Jay-Z in 1994, is not involved.
Though the court-ordered auction was originally intended to pay off an $823,000 judgment in a civil lawsuit, it has since expanded to include other Dash creditors. New York City’s child services agency wants some of the proceeds to go toward more than $193,000 that Dash owes in unpaid child support; New York state says they must pay down roughly $8.7 million that Dash owes in back taxes and penalties.
The owners of the other two-thirds of Roc-A-Fella — label co-founders Jay-Z (Shawn Carter) and Kareem “Biggs” Burke — have already attempted to stop the auction, including making changes to the company’s bylaws and intervening in the lawsuit. But a federal judge rejected such opposition in February, and the sale could take place as early as this month.
As the auction has approached, one major unresolved question for any potential buyer is just how long Roc-A-Fella will continue to own its only real valuable asset.
The so-called termination right, a provision created by Congress in the 1970s, empowers authors to reclaim ownership of copyrighted works decades after they sold them away. If Jay-Z is eligible for it, termination would allow him to take back the rights to his sound recording of Reasonable Doubt roughly 35 years after he released the album, meaning 2031. That would set a clear time limit on the amount of revenue a Roc-A-Fella buyer would derive from their investment.
But last month, attorneys for New York City filed court papers arguing that Jay-Z was not, in fact, eligible for termination — and that he and others were using “false” threats of an approaching termination to drive down the price of Dash’s stake in his company.
“Jay-Z’s statements to the press have poisoned the environment for the auction,” wrote Gerald Singleton, an attorney for the city, asking the judge to halt the auction and issue a ruling on whether or not Jay-Z could use termination to win back control of Reasonable Doubt.
Days later, Jay-Z lawyer Alex Spiro responded that there was “no merit to NYC’s accusations,” and that the Dash case was not the proper place to decide Jay-Z’s rights to the album: “Put simply, this is not the appropriate time, forum, or case to litigate any issues relating to Jay-Z’s notice of termination.”
In Monday’s ruling, Judge Lehrburger agreed with Spiro and Jay-Z: “[NYC]’s motion to stay the auction for purposes of having this court determine the validity of the copyright termination notice filed by Shawn Carter a/k/a Jay-Z in connection with the work Reasonable Doubt, an asset owned by RAF, is denied.”
The judge also rejected New York City’s attempt to conduct discovery into Roc-A-Fella’s holdings, saying that kind of investigation was also beyond the scope of the current litigation. An attorney for the city declined to comment on the order.
The auction is currently scheduled for Oct. 21, but it has been postponed multiple times and could be delayed again. A minimum purchase price has been set at $3 million.
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50 Cent has been one of the biggest names in the rap game for the past 20 years and during that time he’s interacted (and beefed) with everyone you can possibly think of. Recently he opened up about a quick comment from Dame Dash that seems to have left a sour taste in his mouth and in true Fiddy form, he comes off a tad bit petty when reflecting on the moment.
In a recent clip making the rounds on social media, 50 Cent sits down with Gillie Da Kid and Wallo for their Million Dollaz Worth Of Game podcast and recalled a moment in time following his groundbreaking record deal with Shady Records in 2002 in which he was paid a cool million dollars to sign with Eminem and Dr. Dre. At the time such a signing bonus was unheard of, but being that 50 Cent was the hottest rapper on the free agent market thanks to his G-Unit mixtape series record labels were trying to woo him to their companies, but Eminem and Dr. Dre ended up with the winning bid.
After he signed the deal, 50 Cent clearly remembers that Damon Dash dismissing the amount of money he was paid as basically chicken feed and that seems to be something that bugs 50 to this day. Replying to Wallo about how much he was paid to sign to Shady Records, 50 Cent recalled, “A million dollars… and the only person that pointed out that a million dollars was no money was Damon Dash and he has no money now.”
Well damn, 50. Tell them how you really feel.
Reflecting on Dame’s comments 50 continued “I only felt that because he said ‘That ain’t no money. After you get your watch, chain, look out for the homies… it’s nothing.’ And I was like, ‘I’m from 134th Street. B, nah that’s a lot of money. I think I hit the lotto. How you gonna say that’s no money? I just never forgot that because of how that felt.”
Though that was a big damn deal back in 2002, at the time Jay-Z and Damon Dash had the rap game in a chokehold with their Roc-A-Fella Records imprint and were probably making millions of dollars on a weekly basis. So of course that was just pocket change to someone like Damon Dash.
Unfortunately for Dame, he’s since seen his net worth plummet past the basement and has recently been ordered to sell his stake in Roc-A-Fella Records to satisfy some outstanding debt.
Will he reply to 50 Cent’s story is anyone’s guess, but we’re not sure he’ll want to open up that can of worms as we all know Fiddy lives to troll any and everyone who he feels gets out of pocket with him.
Check out 50 Cent’s talk about that moment and let us know your thoughts on the situation below.
50 Cent says Dame Dash has no money now and calls Dame Dash out for telling him that the $1 million he received from signing with Eminem’s Shady Records was no money.
(🎥 Million Dollaz Worth Of Game ) pic.twitter.com/f1iZPkJ1WU
— The Art Of Dialogue (@ArtOfDialogue_) September 1, 2024
Just a week before a court-ordered auction of Damon Dash’s one-third stake in Jay-Z’s Roc-A-Fella Records, there’s a stunning new wrinkle: New York State says he owes more than $8.7 million in unpaid taxes and that the Roc-A-Fella proceeds must be used to pay down the huge debt.
In a motion filed Wednesday in Manhattan federal court, New York’s Department of Taxation & Finance asked to legally intervene in the proceedings ahead of the Aug. 29 auction, in which the United States Marshals Service will auction off Dash’s 33.3% interest in the storied record company.
The tax authorities claim that Dash owes more than $8.7 million in unpaid taxes and penalties from personal income he reported from 2005 and 2018 – and that the Roc-A-Fella auction might be their last shot at recouping a debt that has been “delinquent for far too long.”
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“To date, the Department has been unsuccessful in its efforts to collect the unpaid New York State tax debt owed by Dash,” attorneys for the state wrote. “Intervening in this matter may be the Department’s only opportunity to collect some of the unpaid taxes Dash owes to New York.”
The new wrinkle is sure to complicate an already-complex situation. The Roc-A-Fella auction is being held to satisfy an $823,000 judgment against Dash, won by movie producer Josh Webber in a civil lawsuit over a failed film partnership. But New York City’s Department of Social Services will actually have first dibs, since Dash also owes a total of $145,096 in unpaid child support.
In their filing on Wednesday, the tax department stressed that it does not seek to jump ahead of child services in pecking order for auction proceeds. But it offered no such promise to Webber – and pointedly noted that it had secured a lien against the Roc-A-Fella proceeds more a decade earlier than he had.
Set to take place next week at a Manhattan hotel, the Roc-A-Fella auction will have a minimum bid of $1.2 million. The sale will be for Dash’s stake in Roc-A-Fella Inc., an entity whose primary asset is Jay-Z’s iconic debut album Reasonable Doubt. The rest of the catalog of music released by Roc-A-Fella, which dissolved in 2013, isn’t involved.
The owners of the other two-thirds of Roc-A-Fella — label cofounders Jay-Z (Shawn Carter) and Kareem “Biggs” Burke — have already attempted to stop the auction, including making changes to the company’s bylaws and intervening in the lawsuit. But a federal judge rejected such opposition in February.
The auction will be coordinated by Webber’s attorney, Chris Brown, who told Billboard earlier this month that he had received numerous inquiries from potential bidders, including corporate investors, high-profile individuals and collectors. Brown not immediately return a request for comment Thursday on the Department of Taxation & Finance’s request to access the proceeds.
Though the auction’s minimum bid has been set at $1.2 million, it’s entirely unclear how much a potential buyer is going to be willing to spend on Dash’s one-third stake.
The royalties from Reasonable Doubt would likely provide them a revenue stream; since its 1996 release, Reasonable Doubt has racked up 2.2 million equivalent album units in the U.S., according to Luminate, including 21,500 units so far this year. But the eventual buyer also would be a minority owner in a company controlled by hostile partners, with little ability to perform typical due diligence on the asset they’re about to purchase. And Roc-A-Fella’s rights to Reasonable Doubt will potentially expire in 2031 thanks to copyright law’s termination right, which would allow Jay-Z himself to reclaim full control.
If any money from the auction is left over, it will go to Dash himself. In a statement to Billboard last month, his attorney Natraj Bhushan said that he and his client would be at the Aug. 29 event and “expect a robust auction with bids entering the several millions if not higher.” Bhushan did not immediately return a request for comment Thursday on the Department of Taxation & Finance’s request to access the proceeds.
Damon Dash’s one-third stake in Jay-Z’s Roc-A-Fella Records is going up for auction later this month — but a source tells Billboard that the shares might come with some key limitations.
According to federal court filings this week, the United States Marshals Service will auction off Dash’s 33.3% interest in the storied record company to satisfy an $823,000 judgment against him in a lawsuit filed by movie producer Josh Webber over a failed film partnership.
The auction, set for Aug 29 at a Midtown Manhattan hotel, will have a minimum bid of $1.2 million, and prospective bidders will be required to post a $240,000 deposit for the right to take part in the proceedings.
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The sale will be for Dash’s stake in Roc-A-Fella Inc., an entity whose primary assets are the rights to Jay-Z’s iconic debut album Reasonable Doubt. According to an April article by Rolling Stone, the rest of the catalog of music released by Roc-A-Fella, which dissolved as an operational label in 2013, is owned by other entities and isn’t involved.
The owners of the other two-thirds of Roc-A-Fella — label cofounders Jay-Z (Shawn Carter) and Kareem “Biggs” Burke — have already attempted to stop the auction, including making changes to the company’s bylaws and intervening in the lawsuit. But a federal judge rejected such opposition in February.
The chance to own a valuable piece of rap IP will surely draw bidders, but a source with knowledge of the situation tells Billboard that there are important limitations to what is being auctioned off — namely, that they are buying a stake in a company with other members.
“Whomever buys Dame’s stake in Roc-A-Fella will be a minority owner without authority over any decision-making,” the source tells Billboard. “They won’t have the ability to sell the copyright or borrow against the master as all decisions require majority vote.”
The source also cautioned that the clock was ticking on Roc-A-Fella’s rights to Reasonable Doubt: “There’s also an expiration date on the master ownership for the company, which means revenue and the only asset doesn’t have many years left.”
The auction will be coordinated by Webber’s attorney, Chris Brown. He did not immediately return a request for comment on Thursday.
Webber won his judgment back in 2022 after suing Dash for copyright infringement and defamation over their failed partnership on producing a film called Dear Frank. But Dash has yet to hand over the money, hence the court-ordered auction.
The filmmaker isn’t the only one seeking the money from Dash’s Roc-A-Fella stake. The New York City Department of Social Services (NYCDSS) will actually have first dibs, according to court documents, since Dash owes a total of $145,096 in unpaid child support to a woman named Rachel Roy for his two daughters and to a woman named Cindy Morales for his son.
Brown is also seeking to collect another $155,000 that Dash owes to him and another client, photographer Monique Bunn, from separate legal actions. But they’ve agreed that NYCDSS and Webber deserve to recoup their debts from Dash first.
If any money from the auction is left over, it will go to Dash himself. His attorney did not return a request for comment on Thursday.
Back in 2021, attorneys for Jay-Z and Roc-A-Fella sued Dash after news broke that he was planning to auction off a stake in Reasonable Doubt as a non-fungible token (NFT). They argued that the company, not Dash himself, owned the rights to the album: “The bottom line is simple: Dash can’t sell what he doesn’t own.” A year later, Dash signed a settlement in which he agreed that he had no right to sell any part of Jay-Z’s album — as an NFT or otherwise.
Last year, attorneys for Jay-Z, Biggs and Roc-A-Fella mounted a concerted effort to stop the court-ordered sale of Dash’s stake in the company. After jumping into Webber’s lawsuit, they told a federal judge that the auction would violate company bylaws, which they had amended in 2021 to prohibit such a sale.
But in February, the judge overseeing the case said the updated Roc-A-Fella bylaws had been enacted without Dash’s input and were unenforceable. Instead, he offered an alternative route for Jay-Z and Biggs that would still “readily address their concern” with the sale: “They can participate in the auction and place the winning bid.”
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Source: Courtesy of Damon Dash / Damon Dash
Dame Dash will have to seek new legal representation. His lawyers have served him resignation papers due to unpaid fees.
HotNewHipHop is reporting that the Harlem, New York, native’s debts continue to increase. Last week, Felton T. Newell and Justin H. Sanders, Esqs., of Sanders Roberts LLP formally abandoned their positions as the lawyers on record for the media mogul. The reasons they cited included “breach of contractual obligations to the firm” and claimed Dame Dash “failed to fulfill their financial obligations under their retainer agreement, resulting in the firm initiating an enforcement action against them.”
The firm was representing Dame Dash in his court battle against Monique Bunn. Back in 2023, the photographer claimed he sexually assaulted her but he was eventually cleared of any wrong doing. According to documents obtained by HipHopDX, she has since requested that the case be reopened citing the jury did not understand the gravity of the damages she suffered. Bunn also states that she was not compensated for her work and that Dame Dash.
“The evidence at trial – which was uncontroverted – established that each photo was worth $1,500, which should have resulted in a verdict for at least $384,750,000,” the 285-page document read. “It is well known that professional photographers earn much of their income through licensing their portfolio of photographs, and Defendants’ actions destroyed Ms. Bunn’s economic prospects. The jury ignored the valuation evidence and awarded zero to Ms. Bunn.”
Dame Dash has yet to formally respond to the matter. You can read through the lawyer’s notice of resignation below.
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Dame Dash thinks the Roc-A-Fella Records narrative needs correcting. The mogul insists that Lyor Cohen should take some of the blame for the split up.
XXL Magazine is reporting that the Harlem, New York native isn’t feeling the music executive’s response to having a hand in Dame and Jay-Z parting ways. Back in October Lyor Cohen was a guest on Drink Champs. While he discussed his storied career one specific portion has landed on Dame’s radar. When N.O.R.E. asked “is Lyor the real reason why Jay-Z and Dame Dash are no longer together?” he responded “absolutely not”. After taking a deep breath he added “if Lyor was the reason then they were never together in the first place”.
During the latest edition of The CEO SHOW Dame agreed but detailed why Lyor should be held to task for the break up. “I think he’s right on that but I do think there could have been more of an elaborate answer,” Dame Dash said. “Are you the one that showcased that? Did you give him [Jay-Z] the option? Did you push him to make him aware what he could do and that what you would support? Did you give him the idea to do that? Did you violate and have meetings behind his back? So when that meeting happened when Dame was yelling who made that meeting?”
The former Cake-A-Holic went on to give specific examples of Cohen’s ways. “He’s the person that told Jay, ‘I’ll do a deal with you or without Dame Dash or “Biggs” [Kareem Burke]’ and he’s the one that advised him based on what Steve Stoute told me and based on what Irv Gotti told me that was like, ‘Yo, why would you split it three ways if you could just do it yourself’”.
You can watch Dame Dash discuss Lyor Cohen at the 28 minute mark below.
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Dame Dash is in a great space years after severing ways with Jay-Z. The Roc-a-fella founder says is more than open to speaking to him to resolve their issues.
XXL Magazine is reporting that the Harlem, New York native recently discussed his former partner in great detail. During the newest episode of The CEO Show he and acclaimed Hip-Hop journalist Datwon Thomas talked the fall of Roc-A-Fella Records in relation to him and Hov. “When I look at what happened between me and Jay it’s like I blame Jay for letting it happen but all the people that really made it happen are the ones that are…benefiting from him the most now,” he explained. “I was stopping them from getting money. My friendship comes before the business. Either way unless he [Jay-Z] was down with it then it wouldn’t [have] happened.”
The former cake-a-holic went on to make it clear that he is willing to have a sit down with Jay-Z to discuss what went wrong. “Where I’m at now is that if Roc-A-Fella and the ones that weren’t billionaires want to get money on the right terms I’m down,” he said. “I’m telling you publicly I will [have the conversation]. And I’ve never not said that. But Jay’s never had that accountability to have that real conversation with me.” Dame Dash went on to add “I always said as a man that we could always talk it up. Men should always be able to talk things up, but I’m really happy with my life right now.”
While he is hopeful that the two can move on from the past don’t expect him to be doing his signature dance at any Jay-Z concert. “I know the world would love to see it and I’m down for it. If we could create something that inspires me, period. I don’t want to be f**king running on the stage dancing around I’m too chubby for that right now” he said.
You can watch the interview below.
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A federal jury has issued a verdict mostly clearing Damon Dash in a lawsuit that accused the Roc-A-Fella Records co-founder of sexually assaulting a photographer, Billboard has confirmed.
Monique Bunn sued Dash in 2019, claiming he had inappropriately touched her while she was sleeping at his house during a video project. She then tacked on defamation charges to the case, after Dash accused her on social media of charging thousands of dollars to a credit card without permission.
But following a four-day trial, the jury found that Dash was not liable for sexual assault, seemingly swayed by Dash’s testimony that the allegation was “ridiculous.” The jurors did find him liable for defamation but awarded Bunn just $15,000 in damages. A hearing on additional “punitive” damages is set for Thursday.
Bunn had sought tens of millions of dollars from the lawsuit, including for accusations that Dash failed to give her back a huge trove of her photos. But despite an earlier ruling by the judge that said Dash was liable on that claim, the jurors awarded Bunn no damages over the unreturned property.
The verdict was first reported by Law360 and confirmed to Billboard by attorneys for Dash. Attorneys for Bunn did not return a request for comment on Thursday (Feb. 16).
As reported in detail by Law360, Bunn testified last week at trial that the one-time hip-hop mogul had groped her during a 2019 video shoot at his house. While sleeping in his daughter’s room, she said she awoke to feel “something on the left side of my like lower back onto my butt, down my thigh.”
Bunn then also reportedly testified that Dash’s response to her allegations — a social media post and a radio interview in which he claimed she had stolen money from him — had destroyed her career. “I lost everything, I have nothing,” she said.
In his own testimony earlier this week, Dash reportedly called the allegations “ridiculous,” flatly denying any misconduct and calling Bunn a “con artist” who was making false accusations against him.
Following the verdict for Dash, either side can appeal the outcome — first by asking the judge to overturn the verdict against them, then by taking the case to a federal appeals court.
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