Damon “Dame” Dash and Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter parted ways as Roc-A-Fella business partners over 15 years ago. However, there is still legal fallout over Jay-Z’s debut studio LP Reasonable Doubt which dropped via Roc-A-Fella Records in 1996.
Earlier this month, reports claimed Damon Dash was attempting to mint Reasonable Doubt in order to auction it as an NFT. Roc-A-Fella’s lawyer, Alex Spiro, apparently sued Dash, claiming the Roc co-founder does not own the rights to the classic album.
A new article on the TMZ website suggests Damon Dash is actually attempting to put his portion of the Roc-A-Fella Records up for sale. The outlet published:
Dash tells us the lawsuit is full of inaccuracies, and it’s not the album he’s trying to sell … it’s his ENTIRE stake in Roc-A-Fella!!! In fact, Dash claims as recently as March of this year, Jay-Z attempted to buy his 1/3 share of RAF at, “a price I deemed unacceptable” … so he’s looking for a buyer on his own.
“Under the terms of the deal with a potential buyer, the buyer would buy my share of Roc-A-Fella Records and Jay-Z will have exclusive administration rights,” Dash stated.
Jay-Z, Damon Dash, and Kareem “Biggs” Burke launched Roc-A-Fella Records in 1995 as an independent label. The New York-based company was eventually home to other Hip Hop acts like Kanye West, Cam’ron, Memphis Bleek, Beanie Sigel, Freeway, State Property, Jadakiss, N.O.R.E., and DJ Clue.
The Island Def Jam Music Group bought 50% of Roc-A-Fella in 2004 for a reported $10 million. That transaction allowed Jay-Z to take on the positions of CEO and President of Def Jam Recordings. Jay later established the Roc Nation label and management agency in 2008 as a completely separate entity.
Reasonable Doubt is one of the most celebrated rap albums of all time. Many Jay-Z fans consider the project the Brooklyn-bred emcee’s best body of work. In 2013, Hov ranked Reasonable Doubt in the top spot on the list of his best albums at the time.