After the auction of his Roc-A-Fella shares did not bring in the amount he had hoped for, Dame Dash has taken aim at JAY-Z.
A disheartened Dash expressed his feelings on his America Nu Network after New York State purchased his one-third stake in the business for a mere $1 million.
“What this really taught me was that, in the world, homie isn’t as big as he portrays,” the billionaire stated, downplaying the popularity of his former business partner with the relatively lackluster result of the highly publicized auction.
“I thought more people would be interested in buying it,” he continued. At the very least, I expected folks to show up. Nobody even arrived! […] Jay made no bid at all. It wasn’t worth $3 million, in his opinion. An alleged billionaire.
Dash further asserted that Drake had previously expressed interest in buying his stock and had made a sizable bid before withdrawing without providing an explanation.
Drake did submit a $6 million bid, but he vanished after that. “What happened, I don’t know,” he said. Other than that, though, nobody took anything seriously. There was no one who wanted that stuff.
The purpose of the public auction was to pay off Dame Dash’s substantial debts, which came to nearly $10 million.
The co-founder of Roc-A-Fella is accused of owing $145,000 in delinquent child support to the Department of Social Services in New York City and $8.7 million in overdue taxes to the State of New York.
Filmmaker Josh Webber, who successfully sued Dash for copyright infringement and slander over the 2019 film Dear Frank, is also owed $823,000.
An unnamed state government official purchased his Roc-A-Fella shares with the intention of selling them for a greater price and using the earnings to pay off Dash’s obligations.
Instead of Roc-A-Fella LLC, which holds the remainder of the label’s catalog, the agreement focuses on Dash’s ownership of Roc-A-Fella Inc., whose only asset is JAY-Z’s groundbreaking first album Reasonable Doubt.
Dame had earlier accused Hov of attempting to “poison” the auction by asserting that the termination right of copyright law, which pertains to works older than 35, would return the rights to Reasonable Doubt to him in 2031.
However, New York State attorneys said that Roc-A-Fella Inc. will retain the copyrights until 2098 and accused the label of failing to produce documentation of the album’s revenue.
A judge declined to resolve the issue before the auction, claiming he lacked the authority to make decisions about copyright disputes.
