Jay Z isn't the type of guy you want to try and extort. Unfortunately, that is exactly what Chauncey Mahan recently tried to do. Apparently, Mahan was in possession of some of Hov's masters that were recorded between 1998 and 2002, which Jay and Roc-A-Fella presumed were lost. However, they've been sitting in Mahan's storage locker in California this entire time. After doing a quick search on Mahan, it appears that he has engineer credits for three Jay albums. The last being Collision Course, which was released in 2004.
This past Friday, Mahan attempted to cash in on the recordings, and called Live Nation to set up a deal with Jay to sell them back to him for $100k as a so called "storage fee." Mahan eventually agreed upon $75k for the recordings and set up a meeting with Hov's people. He didn't realize that the LAPD was waiting for him and eventually took him into custody for questioning. Mahan was not arrested, but Jay and his lawyers have filed a grand larceny complaint against him.
Update: Just Blaze sent some tweets out about working with Chauncey in the past:
Chauncey stayed effing up. Big part of the reason Hip and I brought in Guru.
Ill never forget the day Chaunce stepped to Duro wanting to fight lol. This guy ruined every tape transfer for the Dynasty Album.
Duro calls him out on it. He runs over to Soundtrack studios, comes in the room like "yo Duro I ain't no bitch" takes his jacket off.
Me and Duro just looked at him. Blankest of stares.. And went back to work.
If you listen to Bleek's version of "is that your b***h" you'll notice it's in mono. Why? Bc Chauncey. Lol.
If u listen to "get your mind right" from Dynasty, You'll notice all the choruses after the first one fall in the wrong places. Bc Chauncey
We had to re record "streets is talking" vox. Why? Bc Chauncey.
The Dynasty intro sample flanges the entire time.. Guess why!? Chauncey.
We eventually got tired of it. I randomly ended up doing a session with this new engineer who called himself @Young_Guru..
He was young, understood the sound, and knew what he was doing. Brought him in on a Hov session as a test and it clicked. Rest is history.
Oh. And I have backups of just about all of those files Chauncey tried to extort for. Dummy.
[via TMZ]
UPDATE: Chauncey Mahan has responded to the allegations, saying that Hov was "a stupid kid smoking blunts." He also said that he had previously notified them that he had the masters, but only asked for money when he could no longer afford the stoarge fees.
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