Roc-A-Fella Records has filed a lawsuit claiming co-founder Damon Dash is attempting to auction off JAY-Z‘s ‘Reasonable Doubt’ as an NFT.
The famous rap label, which has also been home to Kanye West, Cam’ron and Beanie Sigel, alleges that Dash cannot legally sell Jay’s 1996 debut album as the rights to it belong to the label, reports TMZ.
According to court documents filed by attorney Alex Spiro and seen by TMZ, Dash’s attempted auction has since been cancelled, and that the mogul is “frantically scouting for another venue to make the sale”.
Following news of the lawsuit, Dash told TMZ that the complaint is full of inaccuracies, and it’s not ‘Reasonable Doubt’ he’s trying to sell but instead his shares in Roc-A-Fella.
Dash told the publication that JAY-Z tried to buy his one-third share of the label back in March, but at a price he “deemed unacceptable”.
Now looking for a new buyer, Dash said if he comes to an agreement with someone then “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.”
The Roc-A-Fella complaint comes after JAY-Z reportedly filed a lawsuit against photographer Jonathan Mannion, who shot the cover of ‘Reasonable Doubt’.
In legal documents seen by TMZ, the rapper claims that Mannion has used his name and likeness to sell merchandise and other photos on his website.
JAY-Z has said he never authorised Mannion to use his likeness, and that the photographer asked for millions in compensation when asked to stop selling the photos.
He also told the court that Mannion has made an “arrogant assumption that because he took those photographs, he can do with them as he pleases”.
The photographer has since said he owns the rights to hundreds of images, but JAY-Z said he finds it “ironic that a photographer would treat the image of a formerly-unknown Black teenager, now wildly successful, as a piece of property to be squeezed for every dollar it can produce”, adding that “it stops today”.