JAY-Z Steps In After Dame Dash Ordered To Sell Roc-A-Fella Shares

Damon Dash may be forced to sell his share of Roc-A-Fella Records to satisfy an outstanding debt. Per court documents viewed by AllHipHop, the Hip-Hop mogul still owes $832,000 to film producer Josh Webber and Muddy Waters Pictures, who sued Dash in 2022. To satisfy the debt, Webber and his legal team are going after Dash’s label shares.

The discourse between Dash and Webber began in 2016 after Dash was fired as the director of the producer’s crime thriller, Dear Frank. Webber accused Dash of being unfit for the role, alleging in an Instagram post that he was verbally abusive to staff and often high on set.

Dash countered that Webber was “trying to take credit for a Black man’s work” and attempted to sell the film independently under the new title The List, which prompted Webber’s copyright infringement and defamation lawsuit. Muddy Waters Pictures was granted a judgment in 2022, but Dash has yet to comply with the court’s demand for payment.

“Following trial for copyright infringement and defamation, a jury found in favor of Plaintiffs Josh Webber and Muddy Water Pictures LLC (collectively, ‘Plaintiffs’),” the docs explain. “On June 21, 2022, the Court entered an amended judgment against Defendants Damon Anthony Dash (‘Dash’) and Poppington LLC (collectively, ‘Defendants’) in a total amount of $705,400.00, plus post-judgment interest, and on September 22, 2022, the Court entered a supplemental judgment against Defendants for $117,884.71 in attorney’s fees (both judgments collectively, the ‘Judgment’). Since then, Plaintiffs have sought to enforce and execute on the Judgment without success.”

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The label co-founders, JAY-Z and Kareem “Biggs” Burke, objected to the move, pointing out their company bylaws require board approval of all major sell-offs. U.S. Magistrate Judge Robert W. Lehrburger admonished the label for adopting the clause during a 2021 board meeting, where Dash wasn’t in attendance and didn’t vote in favor. The court then ordered Roc-A-Fella to deliver Dash’s stock certification to the U.S. Marshal’s Service within 180 days.

“The question at the core of the instant dispute is whether the RAF (Roc-A-Fella) By Laws’ prohibition on transfer and sale of Dash’s one-third ownership interest in shares of RAF without the consent of RAF’s board of directors legally prevents the sale of Dash’s interest in RAF to satisfy the Judgment,” Leherburger wrote. “The answer indisputably is no.”

JAY-Z and Burke still have an equal opportunity to purchase the shares, meaning at least two of the label’s founders will retain ownership. Webber has been attempting to collect the settlement since the judgement was handed down, but the latest attempt was just filed on February 13.

Roc-A-Fella Records was founded by Dash, Burke and JAY-Z in 1995 under the Def Jam Recordings umbrella and became one of the most lucrative labels in late ’90s/2000s rap. The label eventually crumbled due to rumored friction between Hov and Dash. But in a 2021 interview with the Social Proof Podcast, Dash claimed JAY-Z’s real issues were with Burke—not him.

“The reason Roc-A-Fella Records broke up in the first place was ’cause he didn’t want to break bread with Biggs no more,” Dash said at the time. “I was like, ‘Yo, we could start something different,’ but I can’t do that to Biggs. He didn’t want Biggs to be a part of it anymore. That’s what happened. They weren’t speaking for like two years and no one knew, though. I don’t know why they would want to devalue my third—I don’t get it.”