Cam’ron and Ma$e have come to Dame Dash’s defense after he was blamed for Roc-A-Fella’s downfall by fellow music executive Steve Stoute.
Speaking on their sports show It Is What It Is on Thursday (March 7), the Harlem rappers gave Dame his flowers, with Killa Cam crediting the mogul with inspiring him to take his career seriously when he joined Roc-A-Fella.
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Murda, who was absent from the rap scene at the time, probed his co-host to elaborate on Dame’s oft-forgotten place in the culture.
“Dame gave a lot of people jobs, regardless of what people say,” the former Bad Boy hitmaker said. “And him giving you a platform, he gave a lot of people in Harlem jobs.”
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“Oh, absolutely. It’s a bunch of people outside of me that are still in prominent positions now [thanks to Dame],” Cam added. “Shari [Bryant] […] she came down as an intern at Roc-A-Fella and she never looked back.
“Y’know, she was an intern, then a secretary, then assistant, then went into corporate, then I think she was the assistant president at Atlantic Records and now she’s the president of Roc Nation.”
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He concluded: “Dame gets perceived the wrong way because of his attitude. He’s very arrogant but he’s very smart. But the thing about it is, Dame is going to do what works for Dame and at this point you got to accept him. Either love him or hate him for who he is ’cause he’s not changing.
“He’s been successful at helping build $100 million companies — not just one, but multiple. And some people are never going to see $100 million in they life, so I think he’s capable of doing anything in the world. But sometimes to me, the way he presents himself to other people is a turn off. He’s can acquired taste.”
Watch the discussion at the 11:42 mark below:
Steve Stoute’s criticism came during an interview with Shannon Sharpe earlier this week, where he said Dame Dash “blew it” when it came to handling JAY-Z and the once-successful label the two founded alongside Kareem “Biggs” Burke.
“The people around him wanted to meet with other people. People were becoming less beholden to him but he was unaware of it,” Stoute said. “And then while he was building businesses, he would go off all around the world with cameras and girls and all kinds of crazy shit, and then come back flipping on everybody as if [they were wrong].”
He added: “Jay grew up, Jay wanted more. I think Jay saw Dame’s ceiling and I think that’s really what it was. He wanted more. Everybody wanted more. Dame just had a very particular way of approaching things.
“He’s far from stupid — very, very smart, very talented. Ego through the roof. So there was no working with him. No one wanted to work with him. Jimmy Iovine had this line: ‘when the shit gets bigger than the cat, you gotta get rid of the cat.’”
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Dash promptly hit back at Nas‘ former manager on Instagram, writing: “This is the reason I had to smack the shit out of @stevestoute a couple years ago…because he’s always speaking on other men’s business good thing I’ve evolved.”
Stoute has yet to respond to Dame’s post, nor Cam’ron and Ma$e’s comments.
