Rap exec Damon Dash has gotten some bad legal news amid his various financial problems. Shortly following his formal request for a reduction in his monthly child support obligation, Dash has been ordered to sell off his last remaining shares in Roc-A-Fella Records, the iconic hip-hop label he helped found back in the 90s. The sale is mandated in order for Dash to finally discharge a debt of over $800,000 he incurred in another courtroom loss back in 2022.
Dash was sued for copyright infringement two years ago by movie producer Josh Weber over a 2019 movie entitled “Dear Frank,” which Dash was alleged to have attempted to fraudulently sell to distributors under a different title. Dash was ordered to pay Weber and the case’s other plaintiffs $823,000, which he has so far failed to pay. Enter U.S. Magistrate Robert W. Lehrburger, who in a legal ruling reported by XXL ordered that Dash sell his Roc-A-Fella shares in order to clear the debt.
Both Dash and his fellow Roc-A-Fella co-founders Jay-Z and Kareem “Biggs” Burke opposed the order in court, claiming that any such sale had to be approved by the board of directors. The judge felt differently:
“The question at the core of the instant dispute is whether the RAF 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 sale of Dash’s interest in RAF to satisfy the Judgment. The answer indisputably is no… Without jurisdiction to enforce a judgment entered by a federal court, the judicial power would be incomplete and entirely inadequate to the purposes for which it was conferred by the Constitution.”
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Now, Roc-A-Fella has 180 days to comply with the court’s order and deliver Dash’s certificates of stock to the US Marshals Service. After that, the stock will be sold at public auction and the proceeds will go to the plaintiffs in Dash’s copyright case.
Damon actually tried to sell the shares in the company himself in 2021, a year before he lost the copyright case. But he told VEUIT in an interview after the fact last year that he was offered $1.5 million for the shares by Jay-Z, an amount he called “disrespectful.” That led to a reported plan to sell Jay-Z’s classic album “Reasonable Doubt” as an NFT, which ended up getting kiboshed by Roc-A-Fella.
