Lawyers for Roc-A-Fella Records are suing Dame Dash, blocking his attempt to sell Jay-Z's debut album Reasonable Doubt as an NFT.
Dame finds himself on the wrong end of a lawsuit levied by lawyers of the record label he helped co-found, XXL has confirmed on Saturday (June 19). The label's lawyer, Alex Spiro, has filed a suit accusing Dame of trying to mint the critically acclaimed LP as an NFT (non-fungible token) and auction it off for top dollar. The suit claims Dame has no right to do this, as the album is owned by Roc-A-Fella Records.
The court-filing claims Dame already set up an auction to sell the album that has since been canceled. Roc lawyers believe Dame will try to get another platform to conduct the sale. The documents allege Jigga's former best bud is "frantically scouting for another venue to make the sale."
The suit is asking the court to stop the sale of the NFT album and also seeks to have Dame turn over any NFTs of the album he's already had minted.
XXL has reached out to Jay-Z's team comment.
Rappers have been cashing in on the NFT craze recently, which allows a seller to turn an item into a digital collectable with proof of authenticity and bought via blockchain. Though once friends and business partners, Dame and Jay's relationship soured in the mid-2000s, following the sale of the label by Jigga to Def Jam in 2004.
This is the second Jay-Z-related lawsuit to pop up in the last several days. Earlier this week, it was revealed Hov is suing famed hip-hop photographer Jonathan Mannion over the use of photos involving the Reasonable Doubt album cover.