Dame Dash is claiming that the world would never have seen the greatness of Jay-Z if it wasn’t for his persistence in pushing Hov in the early stages of his rap career.
The Roc-A-Fella co-founder opened up about his former partner during a recent episode of The Gauds Show. In a clip of the show, shared by Dame Dash on Instagram Wednesday (December 20), the Hip-Hop mogul explained that he kept championing Jay-Z despite multiple rejections.
“I shopped Jay-Z to every single label,” he explained. “Kevin Liles, all of them. Every single one of them and they all said no. And he becomes one of the greatest rappers alive. Those are the same people that are up under this n#### that said he was too old, rapped too fast, and dressed corny.”
According to Dame Dash, Jay-Z wasn’t unwilling to push his own rap career over hustling. He claimed Hov lacked the business acumen necessary to capitalize in the music industry.
Dame Dash continued, “I learned don’t listen to nobody, because if I listened to them, there would be no Jay-Z. He wasn’t gon’ do it. There would be no rapping Jay-Z if it wasn’t for me 100,000 percent. Because he wasn’t gonna do what I did to make sure he got heard. He was hustling.
“He wasn’t gonna put a record out by himself and create a record company,” Dame insisted before adding, “He could rap but he didn’t know business. I taught him business. How to put a record out yourself. How to leverage your celebrity and put it on a product yourself.”