Yahoo Finanza Roc-A-Fella Records Sues Co-Founder for Trying to Sell Jay-Z’s Debut Album as an NFT
Roc-A-Fella Records – the record label started by Jay-Z, Damon Dash and Kareem Burke in 1995 – is suing Dash for allegedly trying to sell the copyright to Jay-Z’s debut album, “Reasonable Doubt.”
According to the complaint, Dash doesn’t own “Reasonable Doubt.” Rather, Roc-a-Fella does. Because Dash owns only one-third of the record label, the suit alleges that the copyright to “Reasonable Doubt” was not his to sell.
Dash’s auction in partnership with the non-fungible token (NFT) platform SuperFarm was scheduled to run from Wednesday through Friday, but was cancelled after Roc-A-Fella’s lawyers sent letters to both Dash and SuperFarm. And yet the complaint alleges that Dash is still “frantically scouting for another venue to make the sale” – and may have already minted an NFT.
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The NFT market for digital collectibles from musical artists and star athletes is booming, and many celebrities are savvy investors and crypto enthusiasts themselves. In February, Jay-Z and Jack Dorsey, the billionaire founder of Square and Twitter, donated 500 bitcoin to launch a development fund focused on increasing crypto adoption in Africa and India.
In March, Square bought Jay-Z’s music streaming service, Tidal, and NFT market experts speculated that NFTs might be the reason behind Dorsey’s investment. Though the NFT market might still be a crypto Wild West, the suit indicates that celebrities like Jay-Z are learning fast enough to avoid being taken advantage of.
In a comment provided to TMZ, Dash denied trying to sell “Reasonable Doubt.” Instead, he claimed he was only trying to sell his stake in Roc-A-Fella. Dash told TMZ that Jay-Z offered to buy him out in March but he found the offer “unacceptable.”
