Damon Dash Sues Jay-Z Over ‘Reasonable Doubt’ Streaming Rights

Damon Dash has filed a lawsuit against Jay-Z over Reasonable Doubt streaming rights, as The Hollywood Reporter reports. The new suit follows a separate one filed by Roc-A-Fella Records last month which accused Dash of allegedly trying to mint and sell the copyright for Jay-Z’s Reasonable Doubt as a non-fungible token (NFT).

According to THR, a summons filed on Tuesday in New York Supreme Court claims Jay-Z, whose given name is Shawn Carter, transferred streaming rights to Reasonable Doubt to S. Carter Enterprises LLC without authorization. Dash is suing over unjust enrichment, breach of fiduciary duty, replevin and conversion, and is seeking at least $1 million in damages, per THR.

“This is nothing more than a frivolous stunt,” Alex Spiro, a lawyer for Roc-A-Fella and Jay-Z, said in a statement to IndieLand.

Legal tensions between two of Roc-A-Fella’s cofounders Dash and Jay-Z mounted last month when Roc-A-Fella sued Dash, accusing him of allegedly planning to sell an NFT of the Reasonable Doubt copyright at an auction. The suit stated that the sale was “improper,” and requested that the sale be canceled.

Dash told IndieLand that the suit was filled with inaccuracies and he claimed he was not trying to sell an NFT of Reasonable Doubt, but rather his stake in Roc-A-Fella Records after the label supposedly tried to purchase it at a low price.

“When another black man calls another black man a thief, just to make him look bad, and so that they can devalue an asset that that other man owns, just because he won’t sell it to him at a low price — I don’t think the culture needs that,” Dash said. He also called the accusations surrounding the Reasonable Doubt NFT sale “false.”

On June 22nd, a judge ruled in favor of the label and prohibited Dash from selling Reasonable Doubt as an NFT.