Damon Dash’s one-third stake in Roc-A-Fella Records, the iconic hip-hop label he co-founded along with Jay-Z and Kareem “Biggs” Burke, will be hitting the auction block at the end of August. The U.S. Marshal’s office is managing the auction, which will take place somewhere in Manhattan.
It’s all part of a civil lawsuit filed against Dash by filmmaker Josh Webber over a movie called “Dear Frank.” Webber accused Dash of copyright infringement and defamation, saying that Dash continued to claim falsely that he held the rights to the film. A judge agreed, and Dash was awarded a judgment of more than $800,000 in damages. The purpose of the auction, according to court documents, is to collect on that judgment, and for that reason, the minimum bid for Dash’s stake has been set at $1.2 million (possibly to cover legal fees and fees associated with the auction in addition to the judgment itself).
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Another interesting financial detail of the auction: whoever the winning bidder may be will also have to pay a deposit of $240,000, or 20 percent of the minimum bid. How much the stake in the defunct label’s back catalog is actually worth remains to be seen, but court documents relating to the auction reportedly specify that the label’s single most valuable asset is Jay-Z’s classic 1996 album “Reasonable Doubt.”
That album was also the center of another of Dash’s recent legal and financial woes. In 2021, Dash faced a lawsuit from his own label over his attempt to sell off an NFT copy of “Reasonable Doubt” on his own despite his only having one-third ownership. Dash argued in court that he was not attempting to sell the album but his own stake in Roc-A-Fella (the same that is now being auctioned off). Dash lost the case and was legally barred from selling the album in any form.
Dash has been seriously financially strapped since at least 2019 when he reportedly claimed in court that he couldn’t cover the sum of $2,400 that he owed in yet another lawsuit. Then, earlier this year, he claimed in court to have made less than $6,000 over the course of 2022 in an attempt to reduce a legally mandated child support obligation. It’s been a long decline for Dash, who saw his financial assets crumble even as one of his Roc-A-Fella co-founders became a billionaire.
After the auction was announced, a source told TMZ Hip Hop that the stake didn’t carry with it any decision-making power within the company. There’s also a ticking clock involved with the label’s master recordings, which is the only likely major source of revenue from the stake. As the source put it: “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 is scheduled to take place on August 29.