Roc-a-Fella Records is taking legal action against its co-founder Dame Dash.
According to TMZ, the music label has filed a lawsuit against Dash over his alleged attempt to mint and sell Jay-Z’s Reasonable Doubt album as a non-fungible token (NFT). Roc-a-Fella claims Dash intended to sell the NFT in a since-canceled auction, and fears the hip-hop mogul will try to do it again.
The suit, filed by famed attorney Alex Spiro, alleges Dash is “frantically scouting for another venue to make the sale.” The label claims Dash does not have authority to sell the Reasonable Doubt NFT because it is owned by Roc-a-Fella. The company is asking the court to stop Dash from potentially auctioning off the NFT as well as surrender any Reasonable Doubt NFTs he may have already minted.
Dash has yet to comment on the matter.
Earlier this week, it was reported that Jay had filed a lawsuit against Jonathan Mannion—the man who shot the cover for Reasonable Doubt as well as other iconic images of Hov. The lawsuit states the photographer had “exploited” Jay’s likeness without permission and has ignored Jay’s requests to stop selling his photos online.
“Mannion has developed a highly-profitable business by selling copies of photographs of JAY-Z on Mannion’s website and retail store, and by selling licenses to others to use JAY-Z’s image,” the court documents read. “Mannion has done so on the arrogant assumption that because he took those photographs, he can do with them as he pleases. But JAY-Z never gave Mannion the right to use his likeness for these or any other purposes. And without that permission, Mannion has no legal right to do so. JAY-Z has asked Mannion to stop, but he refuses to do so.”
A representative for Mannion told Complex that the photographer has “the utmost respect for” Jay, but maintains his client had done nothing wrong.
“[Mannion] expects that Mr. Carter would similarly respect the rights of artists and creators who have helped him achieve the heights to which he has ascended,” the representative said. “We are confident that the First Amendment protects Mr. Mannion’s right to sell fine art prints of his copyrighted works, and will review the complaint and respond in due course.”
