Jay-Z And Damon Dash Reportedly Reach Settlement In ‘Reasonable Doubt’ NFT Lawsuit
Jay-Z and Damon Dash have reached a settlement in the lawsuit filed over Dash’s attempt to sell an NFT of Jay-Z’s debut album, Reasonable Doubt. Dash has allegedly agreed about having no right to sell any part of the album in any form or fashion.
On Monday (June 13), attorneys for Jay-Z and Dash informed a federal judge about their agreement to settle the lawsuit, which was initially filed in 2021. “RAF, Inc. owns all rights to the album ‘Reasonable Doubt,’ including its copyright,” reads the court documents. “No shareholder or member of RAF, Inc. holds a direct ownership interest in ‘Reasonable Doubt’.” Furthermore, the settlement stipulates that Dash is unable to “dispose of any property interest in ‘Reasonable Doubt’.”
More from VIBE.com
The agreement—which was signed on Hov’s behalf by attorney Alex Spiro and other attorneys at Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan and Natraj S. Bhushan and Eric Howard of Turturro Law for Dash—ends a lengthy legal battle between the former business partners. Dash, who owns one-third of Reasonable Doubt, reportedly says that he wasn’t attempting to sell Reasonable Doubt as an NFT in its entirety, only his stake in the album. He decided to retain his stake following his and Jay-Z’s split during the mid-aughts.
However, Hov and his legal team begged to differ and have allegedly equated Dash’s attempts to auction off the aforementioned NFT as outright theft. “The sale of this irreplaceable asset must be stopped before it is too late, and Dash must be held accountable for his theft,” the initial lawsuit read. “The bottom line is simple: Dash can’t sell what he doesn’t own.”
A judge ruled in Hov’s favor, halting any sale of Reasonable Doubt from going forward, a countermove to which Dash reacted while speaking with VIBE.
“Yeah, it’s for sale,” the brash mogul and entrepreneur said last year. “I went to court. I’m allowed to sell my stake, so I’m doing it. To me, it was a statement as an artist: “I will fight whoever.” And it’s funny who that ends up being. But ain’t nobody gonna tell me what I can and what I can’t do with mine, I don’t care who it is. So, we just do it legally and bang it out in court. I think it’s petty and corny. It’s embarrassing that two men that kinda hustled together [are] in court. I’m a street guy kinda so my instincts aren’t court first. I would never think another guy would do that to me. I just think as men, we should be able to talk about it.”
VIBE has reached out to representatives of Damon Dash for comment.
Solve the daily Crossword
