Memphis Bleek has purportedly laid out the fall of Roc-A-Fella Records before our eyes during his appearance on the Drink Champs podcast.
While remarking on his 14-year-long involvement with the label, Bleek revealed to co-hosts N.O.R.E. and DJ EFN what he believes was the “final straw” resulting in the demise of the beloved New York Hip-Hop imprint. Apparently, it all went down during the “Change Clothes” video shoot, during which Bleek and Dame Dash became at odds with each other.
“When I knew the final straw was at the ‘Change Clothes’ video,” Bleek started off. “Yeah, me and Dame had a major argument cause he was telling something to Beans—me and Dame always argued—because it was like he used to be living on cloud nine and I was on reality. Like, I always say that, n###s in the industry will pop every pill under the sun but that reality pill.”
Bleek continued, suggesting he already knew a major shift was incoming. “These n####s don’t want to accept when it’s over,” Bleek said. “You know what I’m sayin’, n####s will be in denial and fight against that s###. And it’s like, bro you gotta accept it, n####s don’t f### with you dawg, it’s on. You gotta do something else.”
Bleek said things fully boiled over when Dame allegedly threatened to both shelve and drop him from the label. “And it was that he basically telling n####s, ‘Yea we gon fix this, we gone do that’ and I’m looking at him like ‘Bro this s### over,'” Bleek said in part. “And he looked at me and said, ‘Yo you always going against everything I said like you got a problem here—if you don’t want to be with Roc-A-Fella I’ll give you your walking papers.’
“And you know me ‘N###a you don’t got the power to do that, I’m not on Roc-A-Fella because of you, are you crazy?’ And I remember they broke it up and security came in there and cleared us out and then Hov got wind of what happened, and from there that conversation there I knew s### was over. Gotta make new plans now Blizzle.”
Memphis Bleek says that during an argument on the 'Change Clothes' video shoot, Dame Dash's threat to drop him from Roc-A-Fella Records was the last straw for Jay-Z.
— The Art Of Dialogue (@ArtOfDialogue_) September 24, 2023
He also suggests that Dame Dash was in denial and couldn't accept the reality that Roc-A-Fella Records was over.… pic.twitter.com/07oR6MFv1p
While it’s clear there were many other factors that caused the dismantling of Roc-A-Fella, it’s interesting to hear that this level of chaos evolved within the ranks during the label’s final days from one of the flagship artists. Not to mention it’s wild to see Bleek actually confirm Michael Jackson’s rumored “No ey contact” policy was a real thing. Check out the full interview below.