Dame Dash lost another case to a lawyer who’s been a thorn in his side.
According to documents obtained by AllHipHop, a jury ordered Dame Dash to pay over $800,000 to filmmakers in a copyright infringement and defamation lawsuit. The plaintiffs were represented by attorney Chris Brown, who’s sued the Roc-A-Fella Records co-founder multiple times.
Jurors awarded $805,000 to director Josh Webber and Muddy Water Pictures in a battle over a film called Dear Frank a.k.a. The List. The filmmakers accused Dame Dash of trying to shop the film as his own project even though he got dropped from the production.
Muddy Water Pictures originally hired Dame Dash to co-direct the film in 2016. The filmmakers accused him of often being high on the set, eventually cutting him from the project in 2018.
Webber and Muddy Water Pictures finished the film without the Hip Hop mogul, who tried to market Dear Frank as Damon Dash Presents The List in promotional material sent to BET. Webber put Dame Dash on blast in a since-deleted Instagram post in 2019.
“I wasn’t gonna speak on this bum but f### him and his lies,” Webber wrote. “I won’t sit back and let this guy try to slander or bully me any longer. Truth is [Dame Dash] is not a true independent artist or business man like he tries to pretend to be.. He was HIRED by @muddfilms to ‘Direct’ the film #thelist originally as a pure marketing stunt. I was the producer of the film and asked to ensure that it actually got made by ghost directing certain aspects.”
He continued, “Dame has no idea what directing a movie actually is or takes and was constantly yelling at crew members/cast, berating people on set, smoking weed and basically sleeping at the wheel. Then while in the process of finishing the film, Dame was being a hot head with the studio executive producer/financier stepping out of line and finally got FIRED!! I was approached to finish the job by directing the movie to completion and attached my company to help in its formal release. Really simple to understand.”
Dame Dash fired back in an Instagram post of his own.
“These liars @muddfilms @joshawebber and @tonywhiteceo tried to con me,” he wrote. “And when I caught them I lying I took over the project and let @muddfilms stay in for short paper because he pretended to be thorough and now the #culturevulture @joshawebber who is obsessed with being me was my assistant director in true culture vulture form is going to try to take credit for a Black mans work.”
Things didn’t work out for Dame Dash as a jury sided with Webber and Muddy Water Pictures in the dispute. Jurors found him liable for copyright infringement and defamation.
The jury awarded $30,000 to Muddy Water Pictures for copyright infringement. Dame Dash was also ordered to pay the company $125,000 in punitive damages.
Webber received $400,000 in compensatory damages for defamation. Jurors gave the director another $250,000 in punitive damages.