Dame Dash’s ownership in Roc-A-Fella Records was recently sold at auction to cover a significant debt – however, it wasn’t sufficient, meaning he could face more of his assets being auctioned soon.
As noted before, Dame’s 33.3 percent stake in the renowned record label was recently auctioned off publicly to raise the $823k he owes to film producer Josh Webber for copyright violation and defamation related to the 2016 movie, Dear Frank.
Nevertheless, he was also in debt for $193k in overdue child support, encountered a lawsuit from photographer Monique Bunn, another from a writer called Edwyna Brooks, and had a staggering $8 million tax obligation to the state of New York.
The $1 million winning bid for the shares was made by an unidentified employee of the New York state government – it addressed the overdue child support, while the remainder went toward the unpaid taxes. This indicates that the Dear Frank lawsuit has not been resolved, and the team involved is now seeking additional claims.
Based on documents initially discovered by AllHipHop and examined by HipHopDX, Josh Webber and his attorney Christopher Brown have submitted a request for ownership records from the troubled mogul and aim to obtain an order that compels Dame to surrender his media company Poppington, LLC and/or the copyrights to the films he produced to the U.S. Marshal.
A ruling from the judge on the issue is still pending.
At the same time, the possible worth of Roc-A-Fella Records was a debated issue prior to the auction.
In September, Dame claimed that JAY-Z was trying to interfere with the auction.
The City of New York sought a pause in the auction after remarks by Hov concerning the copyright ownership of his landmark debut album Reasonable Doubt.
Jay asserted that he would regain the album’s copyright in 2031, but the City contended that this was untrue — and intentionally harmful to the auction procedure.
The City has stated that Roc-A-Fella will retain the album’s copyright until 2098 and has alleged that the label has failed to provide evidence of the royalties produced by the album.
Dame criticized his ex-business partner on Instagram, stating: “The State of NY has intervened and submitted the following to the courts…Jay-Z’s remarks to the media have tainted the atmosphere for the auction. He asserts that he possesses a termination right under the Copyright Act and that the rights to Reasonable Doubt will return to him in six years.
Actually, he does not possess any termination right, and RAF is entitled to the renewal term, which currently spans 67 years, meaning it will retain the copyright rights until 2098. In other terms, the maximum potential auction price might exceed ten times what is probable at present, considering Jay-Z’s and [Roc-A-Fella’s] behavior. [Roc-A-Fella] is involved through its failure to respond to these misleading claims.
