Steve Stoute shared his unfiltered thoughts on fellow music executive Dame Dash in an interview with Shannon Sharpe. Stoute called Dame “a gigantic almost not” while criticizing the Roc-A-Fella Records co-founder’s antics over the years.
“He blew it,” Stoute said. “He had Jay-Z. He had the most important artist of a generation.”
The UnitedMasters boss claimed Dame never matured, which contributed to Jay-Z and others cutting ties. In Stoute’s eyes, too many people realized they did not need Dame to find success.
“Dame wouldn’t change,” Stoute said. “The way he spoke to people, the way he treated people. He was angry. He was angry because he had a strong perspective about his business philosophy … People were becoming less beholden to him. But he was unaware of it. While he was ‘building businesses,’ which partly he was, he would go off all around the world with cameras and girls and all kinds of crazy s### and then come back flipping on everybody.”
Stoute considered Dame to be smart and talented but too stubborn. The music industry veteran quoted a phrase from Jimmy Iovine to explain why so many people rejected working with Dame.
“Jay grew up,” Stoute said. “Jay wanted more. I think Jay seen Dame’s ceiling. I think that’s really what it was. Jay seen Dame’s ceiling. He wanted more. And everybody wanted more. Dame just had a very particular way of approaching it. He’s far from stupid. Very very very smart. Very talented. Ego through the roof. Through the roof! So, there was no working with him. No one wanted to work with him. As much talent as he has, nobody want to work with him. Jimmy Iovine had this line ‘when the s### gets bigger than the cat, you gotta get rid of the cat.’”
Watch Stoute on Club Shay Shay below. The Dame discussion starts roughly 48 minutes into the video.