Niggas had me working overtime as well, doing producer agreements night after night with Ski, Clark, Jaz-O, Preemo. They actually went in and produced the majority of “Reasonable Doubt” on their own, on the strength of relationships and hard cash. Because Dame “dated” Mary J. Blige briefly, right before she blew up, she did him a solid and dropped her cameo on “Can’t Knock The Hustle”. Jay’s relationship with B.I.G. and Clark’s relationship with Puff resulted in “Brooklyn’s Finest”. Dope shit was being cooked up, just didn’t see where that shit was going. Eventually, we landed a modest label deal with Moon Roof, a label under Priority. No lie, that was a bullshit deal. But the only one we could find at the time. The album was solid no doubt, but was missing that one joint, that one commercial single that would push that album from being ai’ight to becoming certified classic status.
Boom! Clark’s baby cousin Inga Marchand, p/k/a “Foxy Brown” made some noise and started a bidding war between Def Jam, Bad Boy, Elektra and a bunch of other labels. On the strength, they snatched her yung ass up for what would end up being the monster single “Ain’t No Nigga”. Damon played that single for me in his new offices, then located in the Wall Street area. Nigga was doing that goofy “Dame dance” with the mock dice roll even then. That record was a monster!!! Inga single handedly, in my opinion, saved Jay-Z’s career. Without her on that record, and Reasonable Doubt being Jay’s last shot, the world at large might have never heard of Shawn Carter. (Niggas don’t really put 2 and 2 together, realizing that Jay had been trying to get on since like 1987, ‘88, damn near close to 10 years before Reasonable Doubt!!!)
Reasonable Doubt dropped and sold gold out the gate. 500,000 units. Priority never expected that. Owed Dame $1,000,000.00 but couldn’t, wouldn’t pay up. Enter Irv Gotti, who snatched up the “Ain’t No Nigga” single for the “Nutty Professor” soundtrack. That led to Roc-a-fella eventually landing at Def Jam. The rest, as they say, is history. Let me set the record straight, here, and once and for all. Without Dame, there would be no Jay-Z. I know it. I said it. And I said it here.
I write this all to say that as brilliant as Damon Dash is, his strongest suit, the thing that made him so extremely successful is that the man is one of the world’s biggest assholes. Always was. I guess it’s a good thing that dude never changed once he made money. I credit him for definitely taking great care of his artists and his peoples, but if you weren’t on what he considered to be his team, he would be incredibly disrespectful. Burned a lotta bridges too. Too many. I once argued with him on just that, on how I felt he was hurting us, hurting himself by burning too many bridges unnecessarily. Told me he didn’t need any bridges to blow up, to make paper. Cool. Confidence is one thing, arrogance is another, and Dame had arrogance in abundance. Throughout my years of association with him, I’ve seen him shit on so many people. So. many. people. Not that the music industry is full of saints, that business breeds dicks by the bundles [||], but when it comes to assholes, Dame remains king.
So now the media is clowning dude for supposedly being broke, for going through a divorce with his wife. I would never pray for that type of public humiliation on anyone, anywhere. Humiliation in spades. However, I confess, when it comes to Damon Dash, I set my watch like 13 years ago, waiting to see when shit like this would happen to him. Not outta hate though, not outta jealousy even, shit I owe dude for helping me in building my business, in helping me to establish a solid reputation in the game, in becoming the person that I am today. The reason I set my watch is because I’ve seen him humiliate and disgrace so many people, throw so many souls under the proverbial bus that even then, I knew that the shit he’s publicly suffering through now was coming, inevitable, only a matter of time. I seen it coming years ago. Only because karma can be a mean bitch, and she is mos def getting it in on dude.
If I were a betting man, after all this shit dies down, and the papers and websites and blogs have had their way with him, I’d say that outta them all, Damon Dash might just could come back and land on top again. He’s brilliant like that, and being an asshole is his strongest suit. But before that time comes, there’s a whole lotta hell for him to pay. And in this lifetime.
Boom! Clark’s baby cousin Inga Marchand, p/k/a “Foxy Brown” made some noise and started a bidding war between Def Jam, Bad Boy, Elektra and a bunch of other labels. On the strength, they snatched her yung ass up for what would end up being the monster single “Ain’t No Nigga”. Damon played that single for me in his new offices, then located in the Wall Street area. Nigga was doing that goofy “Dame dance” with the mock dice roll even then. That record was a monster!!! Inga single handedly, in my opinion, saved Jay-Z’s career. Without her on that record, and Reasonable Doubt being Jay’s last shot, the world at large might have never heard of Shawn Carter. (Niggas don’t really put 2 and 2 together, realizing that Jay had been trying to get on since like 1987, ‘88, damn near close to 10 years before Reasonable Doubt!!!)
Reasonable Doubt dropped and sold gold out the gate. 500,000 units. Priority never expected that. Owed Dame $1,000,000.00 but couldn’t, wouldn’t pay up. Enter Irv Gotti, who snatched up the “Ain’t No Nigga” single for the “Nutty Professor” soundtrack. That led to Roc-a-fella eventually landing at Def Jam. The rest, as they say, is history. Let me set the record straight, here, and once and for all. Without Dame, there would be no Jay-Z. I know it. I said it. And I said it here.
I write this all to say that as brilliant as Damon Dash is, his strongest suit, the thing that made him so extremely successful is that the man is one of the world’s biggest assholes. Always was. I guess it’s a good thing that dude never changed once he made money. I credit him for definitely taking great care of his artists and his peoples, but if you weren’t on what he considered to be his team, he would be incredibly disrespectful. Burned a lotta bridges too. Too many. I once argued with him on just that, on how I felt he was hurting us, hurting himself by burning too many bridges unnecessarily. Told me he didn’t need any bridges to blow up, to make paper. Cool. Confidence is one thing, arrogance is another, and Dame had arrogance in abundance. Throughout my years of association with him, I’ve seen him shit on so many people. So. many. people. Not that the music industry is full of saints, that business breeds dicks by the bundles [||], but when it comes to assholes, Dame remains king.
So now the media is clowning dude for supposedly being broke, for going through a divorce with his wife. I would never pray for that type of public humiliation on anyone, anywhere. Humiliation in spades. However, I confess, when it comes to Damon Dash, I set my watch like 13 years ago, waiting to see when shit like this would happen to him. Not outta hate though, not outta jealousy even, shit I owe dude for helping me in building my business, in helping me to establish a solid reputation in the game, in becoming the person that I am today. The reason I set my watch is because I’ve seen him humiliate and disgrace so many people, throw so many souls under the proverbial bus that even then, I knew that the shit he’s publicly suffering through now was coming, inevitable, only a matter of time. I seen it coming years ago. Only because karma can be a mean bitch, and she is mos def getting it in on dude.
If I were a betting man, after all this shit dies down, and the papers and websites and blogs have had their way with him, I’d say that outta them all, Damon Dash might just could come back and land on top again. He’s brilliant like that, and being an asshole is his strongest suit. But before that time comes, there’s a whole lotta hell for him to pay. And in this lifetime.
Last edited:
