Dame Dash has suffered another legal blow.
After requesting a reduction in child support payments, the hip-hop mogul was ordered to sell his remaining shares in Roc-A-Fella Records—the storied label he co-founded 30 years ago. According to legal documents obtained by XXL, U.S. Magistrate Robert W. Lehrburger announced the decision earlier this month, saying the sale was intended to clear a $823,000 debt Dash had incurred nearly two years ago.
The debt stemmed from a 2022 civil case in which film producer Josh Webber sued Dash for copyright infringement, an allegation that stemmed from his work on Dear Frank, a 2019 movie starring Brian White, Claudia Jordan, Nick Turturro, Lil Durk, and Columbus Short. Webber accused Dash of trying to sell the film as his own and pitched it to several companies under a different title. The plaintiffs, including Muddy Water Pictures, were ultimately awarded more than $800,000; however, Webber accused Dash of refusing to pay up and asked the court to go after his Roc-A-Fella shares.
In March 2022, Dame wrote on IG (below), "You have to lose some battles to win a war….stay tuned #fatliars #youllneverbeme. Don’t ever say you Directed MY movie."
Dash—along with the imprint’s co-owners/founders Jay-Z and Kareem “Biggs” Burke—opposed the move, insisting that any major sell-off required approval by the board of directors. Judge Lehrburger pushed back on the argument and determined Dash’s shares were considered personal property. He also pointed out that the sell-off clause was adopted during a 2021 board meeting for which Dash was not present.
“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,” Leherburger wrote. “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.”
Roc-A-Fella was given 180 days to deliver Dash’s stock certification to the U.S. Marshal’s Service, which will sell the shares at a public auction.
Dash claimed Hov tried to buy his Roc-A-Fella shares back in 2021, but was offended by the proposed payment of $1.5 million.
“When I was offered a certain amount of money for my interest in Roc-A-Fella Inc., which owns Reasonable Doubt, they offered me, like, a million and a half dollars—Jay-Z. And I was like, ‘That’s some disrespectful shit,” he said during a 2023 interview with VEUIT. “So, I guess I have to sell it someplace else.’”
Dash reportedly tried to sell Reasonable Doubt as NFT, but Roc-A-Fella took legal action to squash that plan.
“The bottom line is simple: Dash can’t sell what he doesn’t own,” the company argued, as reported by Rolling Stone. “By attempting such a sale, Dash has converted a corporate asset and has breached his fiduciary duties. His planned auction of Reasonable Doubt would result in irreparable harm. The Court should stop Dash from attempting to sell the copyright to Reasonable Doubt, require Dash to return the NFT of Reasonable Doubt to RAF, Inc., and hold him accountable for this brazen theft of RAF, Inc.’s most prized asset.”
