According to Rolling Stone, Damon Dash has filed a lawsuit against Jay-Z over the streaming rights to the rap don’s debut album, Reasonable Doubt.
The lawsuit, filed on Tuesday in New York, alleges Shawn Carter illegally transferred the streaming rights to his 1996 LP to an entity called “S. Carter Enterprises LLC,” even though he was not authorized to do so.
Dash is suing his former friend for “unjust enrichment, breach of fiduciary duty, replevin and conversion” and looking for a judge to award him with at least $1 million in damages. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Dash’s lawsuit appears to take issue with the fact that S. Carter Enterprises LLC is licensing the album to Spotify, Apple and other streaming companies.
A lawyer for Roc-A-Fella told Rolling Stone the lawsuit is “nothing more than a frivolous stunt.”
This suit is a response to a suit filed by the label in June. As theGrio previously reported, Roc-A-Fella Records hit Dash with a lawsuit over his attempts to auction the Reasonable Doubt album as a NFT, for non-fungible token.
At the time, Dash claimed that the lawsuit is nothing more than a scare tactic to block his efforts to sell the album to the highest bidder. Additionally, he told TMZ he’s not simply unloading Reasonable Doubt, he’s also attempting to sell his share of Roc-A-Fella.
Dash said Carter offered to buy his one-third share of Roc-A-Fella at “a price I deemed unacceptable.”
So, now Dash is now looking for a new buyer, according to the outlet.
“Under the terms of the deal with a potential buyer, the buyer would buy my share of Roc-a-Fella Records and Jay-Z will have exclusive administration rights,” Dash said.
Roc-A-Fella’s lawsuit alleged that Dash can’t sell Reasonable Doubt because it’s owned by the record label. The company wants the court to ban him from auctioning the acclaimed project, as well as surrender any Reasonable Doubt NFTs he already created, according to Variety. The legal documents accuse Jay-Z’s former business partner of “frantically scouting for another venue to make the sale.”
A judge sided with Jay-Z and put a stop to any potential sale last month.
theGrio’s Ny Magee contributed to this report.
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