Dame Dash has claimed that his fighting for JAY-Z in label offices and teaching him the business side of the music industry is the reason Hov went on to have a Hall-of-Fame rap career.
The music mogul joined The Gauds Show on Tuesday (December 19) where he opened up about his former Roc-A-Fella partner, specifically how much work he had to do to open the lane for the Brooklyn rapper’s music career because he believes Hov was more interested in hustling rather than breaking as a rapper.
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“I shopped JAY-Z to every single label,” he told the show’s hosts. “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.
“I learned to listen to nobody. 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.”
Watch the clip below:
Dame continued to explain how his business expertise cleared the way for JAY-Z to take off into stardom.
“He wasn’t gonna put a record out by himself and create a record company,” he added. “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.”
Dame Dash, Kareem “Biggs” Burke and JAY-Z launched Roc-A-Fella Records in 1994 but the label infamously split in 2004 when The Island Def Jam Music Group purchased ownership in the Roc and Dame launched the Dame Dash Music Group.
While Dame took credit for helping put Hov on, the rap legend didn’t agree with those sentiments and addressed the idea on Kingdom Come‘s “Lost One.”
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“I heard muthafuckas sayin’ they made Hov/ Made Hov say, ‘Okay, so? Make another Hov!’/ N-ggas 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,” he raps on the 2006 track.
