Furious Damon Dash has slammed Jay-Z as a “liar” and a “bully” for filing a lawsuit alleging he’s trying to steal and sell the rights to the rapper’s debut album “Reasonable Doubt.”
Dash, who co-founded Roc-A-Fella records with Jay and Kareem Burke in 1995, is hitting back after the “Big Pimpin'” rapper sued him in New York’s Southern District Court claiming Dash was trying to steal the album via digital marketplace SuperFarm as an NFT — a non-fungible digital token which is currently a big deal on the art market — without his permission.
The 1996 record launched Jay’s career and went on to sell over a million copies.
But Dash insists he owns a third of Roc-A-Fella and he says he has every right to sell his share.
He exclusively told Page Six of Jay’s lawsuit, “He lying. That’s a whole lie. Jay owns one-third of ‘Reasonable Doubt.’
“They just said that I tried to sell an NFT of ‘Reasonable Doubt’ and … it’s not true. I’m not running around to different places trying to auction off ‘Reasonable Doubt.’ I’ve been working with one platform and that’s SuperFarm.
“And the thing is I own a third of Roc-A-Fella Records and I can sell my third if I feel like it.”
Dash, 50, claims that Jay, 51, filed his legal action on Friday after offering to buy him out of his share of Roc-A-Fella for $1.5 million, which he declined.
Dash claims the lawsuit is a result of this failed deal so Jay can allegedly stop him selling his third to someone else.
The lawsuit states, “Dash is frantically scouting for another venue to make the sale. … The sale of this irreplaceable asset must be stopped before it is too late, and Dash must be held accountable for his theft.”
But Dash said, “Jay himself tried to buy my third and it was a crackhead deal. He offered me like I was Pookie or something from New Jack City.”
Pookie was the crack addict character played by Chris Rock in the 1991 movie “New Jack City” who tried to become straight to be a police informant.
He continued, “That’s what corporate always does to the independent guy. It’s a case of corporate versus independent and how they try to bully me — but they are trying to bully the wrong one.”
Dash alleges that this is a regular tactic employed by Jay-Z now he’s a big business mogul.
“It is the same f–king game. It just seems like they so mad if I get money. I don’t know why but why can’t I sell my third to who ever I want, whenever I want? I don’t have to ask,” he said.
“… He [Jay] don’t want nobody to eat but him. The real issue is [he has to] to compromise a man’s reputation for no reason.
Dash added that Jay has become too controlling and allegedly vindictive against anyone he perceives as a rival.
He said, “He thinks Roc-A-Fella records is his — it is ours — and he’s doing all this on Roc-A-Fella’s behalf.
“He’s got ‘only one man to eat’ syndrome and ‘everybody else got to work for him’ syndrome and ‘kiss the ring and we’re gonna mess up his reputation’ syndrome if you look under the hood. It continues to happen.
Dash added, “It is f–ked up for one black man to do that to another black man in front of all these people and whoever believes that s–t is a sucker. I got a bridge I can sell you too.”
A rep for Jay didn’t immediately get back to us.