Steve Stoute Gets Brutally Honest About How Damon Dash Pushed Business Partners Away
Damon Dash is an indelible part of Hip-Hop history due to his work with JAY-Z and Roc-A-Fella, even if he is a polarizing figure. Steve Stoute recently shared his perspective on the entrepreneur and why people ultimately created distance from him.
Stoute was the latest major guest on Shannon Sharpe’s Club Shay Shay and did not hold anything back when it came to the Roc-A-Fella co-founder.
“Dame wouldn’t change,” he told the NFL Hall Of Famer. “The way he spoke to people, the way he treated people. He was angry. He was angry because he had a strong perspective about his business philosophy […] People were becoming less beholden to him.”
Steve Stoute claimed that Damon Dash wasn’t aware of the fact he drove people away because he was immersed in a wild lifestyle. “While he was ‘building businesses,’ which partly he was, he would go off all around the world with cameras and girls and all kinds of crazy sh*t and then come back flipping on everybody,” he said.
Stoute specifically spoke about JAY-Z and how as he “grew up,” he eventually saw the writing on the wall in his business relationship with Dash.
“Jay seen Dame’s ceiling,” he said. “He wanted more. And everybody wanted more. Dame just had a very particular way of approaching it. He’s far from stupid. Very very very smart. Very talented. Ego through the roof. Through the roof! So, there was no working with him. No one wanted to work with him. As much talent as he has, nobody [wants] to work with him.”
Steve Stoute closed off his comments with an insightful quote from music mogul Jimmy Iovine. “Jimmy Iovine had this line,” he said. “‘When the sh*t gets bigger than the cat, you gotta get rid of the cat.’”
This is just the latest in the pervasive Roc-A-Fella saga. Last month, Damon Dash was ordered to sell his remaining shares of the disbanded label to cover an $823k debt. Dash was sued for defamation and copyright infringement by movie producer Josh Webber in connection to the 2016 film Dear Frank.
Webber won the case in 2022, but Dame had not yet paid what he was supposed to at the time Magistrate Judge Robert W. Lehrburger ordered him to sell his one-third ownership of Roc-A-Fella. Notably, JAY-Z and Kareem “Biggs” Burke tried to intervene on his behalf, but to no avail.
Never one to go quietly, Dash took to Instagram to share his reaction after the initial verdict. “You have to lose some battles to win a war,” he wrote. “Stay tuned. #fatliars #youllneverbeme Don’t even say you Directed MY movie.”
More from VIBE.com