Dame Dash Takes Credit For JAY-Z’s Successful Rap Career: “I Taught Him Business”

JAY-Z and Damon Dash accomplished a lot together, but the latter believes the former wouldn’t have gotten as far as he has without him. Dame opened up on the work he did to help Hov on the business side.

The co-founder of Roc-A-Fella appeared on The Gauds Show on Tuesday (Dec. 19) and held nothing back. “I shopped JAY-Z to every single label,” the 52-year-old record executive said. “Kevin Liles, all of them. Every single one of them and they all said no. And he becomes one of the greatest rappers alive. Those are the same people that said he was too old, rapped too fast, and dressed corny.”

Dash took pride in the fact that he didn’t believe the naysayers because of what his relentlessness did for the Brooklyn rapper. “I learned to listen to nobody,” he said. “If I listened to them, there would be no JAY-Z. He wasn’t gon’ do it. There would be no rapping JAY-Z if it wasn’t for me 100,000 percent. He wasn’t gonna do what I did to make sure he got heard. He was hustling.”

Damon Dash continued, speaking more on the business aspect of JAY-Z’s career and what he wasn’t equipped to do at the time. “He wasn’t gonna put a record out by himself and create a record company,” Dame said. “He could rap but he didn’t know business. I taught him business. How to put a record out yourself. How to leverage your celebrity and put it on a product yourself.”

Together, those two and Kareem “Biggs” Burke started Roc-A-Fella records in 1994. They had a dominant run up until 2004 when the label split up and birthed the long-running tension between Hov and Dash.

The 24-time Grammy winner addressed the idea that Dame made him who he is on the 2006 record “Lost One,” rapping “I heard motherf**kas sayin’ they made Hov/ Made Hov say, ‘Okay, so? Make another Hov!’/ Ni**as wasn’t playin’ they day role/ So we parted ways like Ben and J-Lo/ I shoulda been did it but I been in a daze though/ I put friends over business end of the day though.”

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