Jay-Z’s former business partner Damon Dash has taken out a lawsuit with Hova over streaming rights for Reasonable Doubt.
The Hollywood Reporter state that a summons filed on Tuesday in New York Supreme Court claims Jay-Z transferred streaming rights to Reasonable Doubt to S. Carter Enterprises LLC without Dash’s permission. Dash is allegedly suing Jay for “unjust enrichment, breach of fiduciary duty, replevin and conversion”. It’s believed that Dash is seeking a minimum of $1 million in damages.
Alex Spiro, a lawyer for Roc-A-Fella and Jay-Z, has hit back at the lawsuit, telling Rolling Stone: “This is nothing more than a frivolous stunt.”
Dash and Jay-Z co-founded the label in 1995 alongside Biggs Burke, but their relationship eventually soured. They fell out in 2004 after Def Jam bought out their stake in the company, and Jay-Z was then appointed as president of the label following the sale.
Last month, TMZ reported that the record label is taking Dame Dash to court due to him trying to sell an NFT. The publication stated that Dame has been attempting to auction off Reasonable Doubt as a non-fungible token, despite seemingly not having the rights to do so.
Dash has broken his silence on the lawsuit. He told Rolling Stone: “When another black man calls another black man a thief, just to make him look bad, and so that they can devalue an asset that that other man owns, just because he won’t sell it to him at a low price — I don’t think the culture needs that.”
This is a story that looks like it’s going to rumble on for some time, and it’s sad to see two men who started Roc-A-Fella together now embroiled in a bitter war.
