- Roc-A-Fella Records was first started by Damon Dash and Jay-Z in 1995.
- The first album released on Roc-A-Fella Records was Jay-Z’s debut studio album, Reasonable Doubt. The album was released in 1996 and it became an instant classic in the hip-hop genre.
- In 2008, Jay Z started his own record label, Roc Nation.
- Roc-A-Fella Records was responsible for launching the careers of Jay-Z, Memphis Bleek, Beanie Sigel, and Kanye West.
- In 1997, Jay-Z and his co-founders sold half of Roc-A-Fella to Def Jam for a reported $1.5 million. Seven years later, in 2004, Def Jam bought the other half of Roc-A-Fella for $10 million. In 2005, Jay-Z was named CEO of Def Jam in a deal that allowed him to continue to run Roc-A-Fella.
- Hov filed a lawsuit against his former business partner, alleging Dash had stolen the copyright to his 1996 debut album, Reasonable Doubt, and minted it as an NFT to sell at an auction on June 23rd, 2021.
- The suit claimed Dash was “frantically scouting for another venue to make the sale.”
- The paperwork for the action also provided the copyright split for the album, which evenly divided between Dash, JAY, and fellow Roc-A-Fella founder Kareem “Biggs” Burke.
- Hov’s legal team argued Dash has no right to sell the copyright or any individual ownership interests in Reasonable Doubt because he only owns partial rights to it.
- JAY-Z and Damon Dash eventually settled their feud over Dash’s alleged attempt to sell the copyright to Jay’s Reasonable Doubt as a non-fungible token.
- Under the agreement, Dash can sell his one-third stake in Roc-A-Fella Records, but he cannot “in any way dispose of any property interest in Reasonable Doubt.”
- The agreement also stipulates that RAF “owns all the rights” to Reasonable Doubt, including its copyright, and that no shareholder or member of RAF holds a direct ownership interest in it.
Now Reading: The Rise and Fall of Roc-A-Fella Records
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The Rise and Fall of Roc-A-Fella Records
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