The Sad Death of Roc-A-Fella Records

What was Poppio before Sean Carter was now known to everyone as Jay-Z? He became Beyonce's billionaire husband. He married. He was a rapper looking for a record deal like most of his peers in the '90s. Dame Dash gave him money to record a bunch of songs. and when a record deal didn't come his way he started printing the

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himself and selling them out of his car and Rockefeller Records was born to try to appear on the radio. Dame Dash filmed a video for Jay-Z's song In My Life for sixteen thousand dollars in The 16-millimeter film borrowed a friend's boat in St Thomas to film a scene of what appeared to be Playboy's life after appearing on

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with his Brooklyn predecessors Jazz Oh and Big Daddy Kane, and releasing his debut solo single in my life, it was show time.

For Jay-Z, instead of giving up after hearing the word "not very often" thrown around by record labels, he proved everyone wrong by starting his own Rockefeller albums with his partner Dame Dash and Kareem, aka Biggs Burke, in 1995. Jay-Z explained that this first phase of his career was for MTV, I want for all the record labels and they said this guy is terrible, he's nothing. I had to take Reasonable Doubt because no one would hire me. I would press singles and go to record stores. I charge myself a hundred dollars, two hundred dollars, I come back, I give them some more records.

It started like this. He made me appreciate him so much more. Nobody gave me anything. They didn't give me a record deal. I really took my time and grew it. Step by step, step by step, I could have easily said maybe what I'm talking about isn't right, no one wants to hire me, that would have stopped the suffering, but I didn't name it after John D Rockefeller, one of the richest Americans. . The Rockefeller records that once existed as a brand fully embodied the image of opulent wealth and lavish luxury, from the logo on its champagne bottle to its audio salutes to Versace and Cristal, as Jay-Z's first guest appearance on one album was with the musical Mentor Jazz oh. who was also a neighbor when you both lived in the Marcy Projects housing complex in Brooklyn during the '80s.

Were you ever asked to be a partner on Rockefeller records? It was never talked about, but one thing I can say is that I had opportunities to um, to throw out, if you will, have some kind of paperwork about Jay and I never wanted you to know that some people might call me crazy, you know that in retrospect, because you'll sign him as a rapper from the start, oh yeah he could have signed them. or I gave them a production deal, yeah, or whatever the case may be, and I never chose that and I say it now like I've said it, I've said it for over 30 years or at least 30 years, um, I did.

I don't want him to go through some of the rigors I had to go through to get to a certain point in rock, as the record label began referring to itself when it released Jay's debut album, Reasonable Doubt, with distribution through from Priority Records on June 25, 1996. We made a video about Priority Records and their rise and you can watch it in the description below, although Reasonable Doubt would take a while to become the Blockbuster it later became and still destroyed the summer with street anthems that are now hip-hop classics. such as Dead Presidents can't knock the hustle with Mary J Blige and also Brooklyn's Finest, a duet with Notorious BIG with production by artists such as DJ Premier Irv Gotti, ski accounts Clark Kent and jazz appearances and career of Foxy Brown Memphis Bleak and willow. money Reasonable Doubt left no doubt in the minds of the music industry that Jay didn't come to play, but rather he came to leave a mark.

Monumental's debut album sold 43,000 copies in its first week and almost 10 times that amount in its first year. Lease was a slow process, the success he experienced helped Rockefeller Records move out of priority records and move forward with the partnership with Def Jam Jay-Z. Jay-Z's quick, cool, carefree wit and effortless depictions of street life increased rap music's fascination with the The images that Kool G Rap ushered in in the '80s were magnified and cemented a year before, in '95, with the only "Build for Cuban links" by Ray Kwan and also with "do or die" by az and they continued with "it was written" by Nas and later in '97, the life of the notorious Big after.

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Reasonable Doubt put Jay-Z squarely in the same conversation as these bona fide kings of New York City hip-hop like biggie Nas AZ rayquan Ghost Face Killer and also members of Wu-Tang Clan and Mobb Deep, the main The difference was that Jay-Z entered this realm of New York City hip-hop not only as a top-notch lyricist but also as a co-owner of his own record label, but Jay also proved that he was much more than one-third of the Rockefeller owner: He was also the top All-Star player on that team when they entered the rap music leagues and music industry competition was fierce at the time with P Diddy's stacked Bad Boy Records roster releasing Notorious B.I.G. mace and the trio The Lox on the West Coast, Rockefeller also had to maintain his weight with Death Row Records, which took over the Billboard charts with acts like Tupac Snoop Dogg and the Kennel, although it took six years for Reasonable Doubt to Jay-Z getting his Platinum sales status in 2002, that didn't stop Rockefeller's hits from topping the music charts consistently excluding r b's low-selling attempt with the group Chris Young with his only album in rock called ghetto Serrano and the Rapper Emil, who was the short-lived Rockefeller Dame, was mostly a road paved with gold. and platinum plaques for office Partners Jay Damon Biggs, even when Jay-Z expressed an early interest in staying behind the scenes on the business side, it was primarily Jay-Z's annual string of releases that kept the Lights On The engines going.

Range Rover running and bank accounts flowing with millions and millions of dollars, let's take a quick look at Jay-Z's album sales from a second song on a second album in my life, volume 1, to the Black Album, the project which was promoted as supposedly their retirement album, so yes, in my life volume one a year after their debut has been Platinum volume two five times Platinum volume three three times Platinum the dynasty Rock La Familia the group's album two times Platinum the blueprint in 2001 twice the album number Platinum seven was a joint project duet with R Kelly called The Best of Both Worlds went Platinum 2002 the model two three times Platinum The Black Album three times Platinum to summarize a long history between 96 and 2003, which was the Rockefeller era before Kanye West releasing albums, Jay had nine albums, they all sold a million copies, they are better than all the other signees to the label, there was only one other platinum selling album and Cam' ron brought it home with me, then there were five that went gold and that was Memphis Bleak's coming of age in '99, Beanie Siegel's truth in 2000, Memphis Bleak's understanding in 2000, Beanie single The Reason in 2001 and the classic diplomatic immunity of diplomats album in 2003, so in all honesty, Jay-Z Volume 2.

The Hard Knock Life album alone sold more than all of his other artists' albums combined between 1996 and 2003. This, of course, is before Kanye West changed the game a year later, following Jay-Jay's The Black Album. Z in 2004 with The College Dropout, which sold more than 4 million. copies and revitalized the entire label and the industry as a whole before yay's transition from being a contract producer to an on-mic artist, clearly the pressure was on Jay-Z's mic to keep rapping every year to ensure that The Rock would continue to be the greatest. on the Block, but Jay-Z obviously had other ideas of what success looked like for him and wasn't looking to stay attached to Dame Dash and Kareem Burke, but what else happened that finally separated the field from Rockefeller records and turned it?

From the inside out, when it comes to the internal drama brewing at the Story label, video producer Choke, no joke, who was hired at Rock by Dame Dash, had a bird's-eye view of the corporate unraveling that was occurring from inside. I was working at Rockefeller. four years, Jay-Z never came to the office once now four years, so from The Blueprint 2 to the Black Album you never made it to the office, you'll see him go see Leon, but he would never come to Rockefeller The collapse of the Jay and Dame's bond is due to several loose threads.

First, there was more than one way Rockefeller was handled. Dame was apparently more accessible to the label's artists, besides being very outspoken, we can say that Jay-Z was more distant and an artist mode most of the time, which makes sense because we already established that Jay was the main breadwinner of the company, but Dame Dash's extravagance wasn't always the way the more laid-back Jay-Z wanted to run the company. Rockefeller Soldier and high-profile beanie single rapper was a respected Philadelphia hardcore rapper who was once a iconic Rockefeller artist and who also had an entire Hometown team behind him called State Property.

He was also signed to the label in addition to beanie. State Property consisted of freeway PD crack Young Chris neef Buck Emilio Sparks and oshino vasqueza That being said, beanie had a front row seat to the company collapse that was unfolding around him and he shared it publicly while sitting down with global Grand TV . I know it's for conversations that me and Jay had started to be famous, you know, it can't be the camera, the camera he fell with had been against the camera, you know, you were able to say anything, you could beat anyone or I think everything would have played the role of Kareem birkster, Kareem. and I just played the bottom line and ran the business right, maybe Rockefeller still is, you know what a force we were and then, but on the other hand, I think Jay was growing up and, in my opinion, at a certain point, he just I think he felt That you know it's time for me to move on and do my thing.

We make enough money together. They were spending a lot of company money on a lot of traveling and a lot of other business ventures, and you know, Rob. and Peter to pay Paul and get money out of here and try to build Our Brands and stuff without insulting his partners and Beanie Siegel while incarcerated released his album The Becoming under the musical group Dame Dash, in contrast, the members of State Property Group joined Jay-Z on Def Jam-owned Rockefeller records Beanie Siegel responded by putting State Property's projects on hold, claiming he was disappointed in his label mates. war against Jadakiss and The Lox trying to make a name for themselves in 2010, Beans made his point in a recent interview with the star and Buck Wilde. "I'm not loyal to Dame," he said when asked about his time with the Rockefeller records my lawyer found. 11 million dollars that Damon Dash stole from me, I mean, he declared bankruptcy.

I have a piece of paper that says he owes me some money, but who wants to check? I haven't seen or spoken to Dame in about five years, aside from Jay. -Z and Kanye West, Rockefeller's records' dominance of the rap world during his career was also based on the expansion of his operation with some of Dame's Harlem neighbors, Camron and his team, diplomats Jim Jones Juelz Santana, the strange Zeke hell Rel 40 cal and more. Dash brought into the Rockefeller group the label signed by Beanie Siegel, who would later establish state ownership, and Cameron, who would later introduce diplomats.

The recruitment of these artists and record labels helped bring Rockefeller records to their peak, but with a costly controversy between Jay-Z and Cam. 'ron started over the H to Izzo and Cameron scrapped Jay-Z's verse from oh boy's original song Dame Dash poured gas on The Flame by offering the camera on the Rockefeller Records VP position without Jay's knowledge -Z, Cameron years later expressed his position stating that Jay-Z blocked him from the executive position, on the other hand, he also stated that the executives who are trying to demote him with the salary of 500,000 Rockefeller records renewed their Def Jam contracts for 20 million in 2004, which was a massive 19.5 million increase from his original 1997 deal.

Dame's comments to MTV inferred that he couldn't imagine a life without Rockefeller at the time Dane felt secure in their collective position in the music industry, that's all paperwork, we'll never break up, it's Rockefeller. For life he would never pass the torch or leave any of my artists. I look at them like my family, almost like my children. I would never leave them with anyone else who could run Rockefeller except me, but this might have been Dame's way of keeping the A Sticky Business behind the scenes, quiet and out of the gaze of the curious public because within six months Jay-Z decided to take over. role as president of Def Jam after the remaining 50 shares of Rockefeller Records were sold to its parent company.

This was not a surprise. move because tension had been brewing between Dame and JayFor years, for example, in 2002, during Jay's holiday on the Mediterranean islands, a small corporate restructuring was going on behind him and Dame organized a media event to name Camron and Dipset's State Property. Frontman Beanie Siegel as Rockefeller's new vice presidents with Jay-Z sending the long-distance message refuting that these hirings were not official and in his somewhat premature words this surely created a divide between Jay-Z and the newer acts in the seal. then there was the viral video of Dame Dash blowing up at Def Jam Executives after barging into a meeting about Rockefeller that didn't call him as another clue that all was not bright in the Rockefeller Empire.

Dame Dash produced a satirical comedy film called Death of a Dynasty that actually incorporated the rumors surrounding the tension under her roof that would later end her dynasty for good. The first steps with no turning back moving towards the end of Rockefeller Records came about in 2004, when Def Jam Recordings, which had owned a 50% stake in Rockefeller since 1997, bought the rest of the label and Jay-Z struck a deal with them to also become the president of Def Jam. In the fall of 2005, Jay-Z bought out Dame Dash's stake in Rockaware, the hip-hop clothing line they had been raking in millions as an extension of the Rockefeller brand in a 2006 profile interview with The Magazine.

New Yorker Dame Dash opened up about where he was headed after artists like Kanye West and Beanie Siegel turned away from him and sided with Jay-Z. As for his career, he described the night in December 2004 when Jay-Z informed him about the Def. Jam's offer that he was looking to accept and how Rockefeller artists mostly underperformed after Dash was no longer in the picture. I said: Go ahead and take the money and the job, but don't take the name, don't take Rockefeller with you. I did not do it. Say please, but I might as well have said it's business, but we were always supposed to be more than business, especially Jay.

I did everything I could so he didn't have to raise his voice, he just had to whisper something in my ear and I would take care of it the people I fought to make money for him lior Cohen and Kevin Lyles Def Jam executives I met became friends hangs out with puff now it's like your brother left you Kanye's second album did well but no more than the first and had a lot more muscle behind it at the time Memphis Bleak is not what it was Young Guns sold about a quarter part of the number of albums during their new album than the last one with me.

I always win. gold from Dane's point of view, he felt that Jay-Z was ripped off the Rock by Def Jam executives who he saw as culture vultures, i.e. their president Leor Cohen, it was as if they had people whose job is create meat so they can monetize it, pause and they can't make money or get any respect in their culture, that's why they are in our culture, because the moment they are allowed to be there, they would leave, but they just can't, they will never have issues. with Jay always with leor and his entire group he is the one who ruined Rockefeller at the moment when The Rock was rolling downhill Jay-Z made his position known without openly launching derogatory comments towards his former press colleagues Jay-Z explained his situation By saying that however the situation happened, whether we get over it or whatever, it was time for me to look for a new deal on the situation while I was doing it, I was going to leave the Rockefeller records and if anyone can imagine building something out of nothing and being the main driving force for it and then having to leave all your legacy and everything that's left behind.

I know it would be a tough situation for anyone as they looked for another deal, whether it was the S car for the records or whatever. There's a deal on the table to be the president of Def Jam, continue to run Rockefeller, CEO, president of Rockefeller as well and get all my masters back, but since I was the one who wanted to leave, I thought: let me try to find some way in which everyone can do it. be happy then I said let me have a reasonable doubt it's not a question of money reasonable doubt if you look at it it sells what it sells in the catalog maybe a hundred thousand a year is very little money but it meant everything to me because it was my baby it was the first and It was also something more important, just give me something to walk with, something to hold on to.

I don't want to walk away from Rockefeller records, if you can imagine, without anything, so I said, let me. Get a reasonable doubt and I'll give up on the rest of my teachers, just give me my baby to hold so 10 years from now I can look back and got something. I am not empty handed and it was I who was I offered everything. I thought it was more than fair and when they rejected it I had to make a decision. I'll let people say what choice they would have made. That's all. I don't really want to talk about Day.

More Biggs Anyway, I don't have anything negative to say about them. Wes may be one of the strongest voices in rap music right now, but back in 2004, when Yay was releasing his first album, The College Dropout, Rockefeller was preparing to release his remaining 50th. owned by its parent company, the island music group Def Jam, for 10 million, and Def Jam took many of the biggest names in The Rock, such as Beanie Siegel, Memphis Bleak and, of course, Kanye West, with Jay- Z still running the show, oddly enough, Jay-Z. was the one who wasn't too keen on Kanye becoming a rapper in the first place, especially during an era when harder-edged groups like Beanie Siegel and 50 Cent dominated rap at the time Rockefeller co-founder Kareem Biggs Burke , shared his feelings about Kanye leaving when he went on to work with Jay-Z, there was a time where we could have taken Connie to another label and still been in Kanye's business for several years after that, but we decided Leave it to Def Jam.

That's something I wish I was better prepared for, especially seeing how great he's become by launching his career from where he started it all. Kai is a very creative person, but at the same time we probably could have helped him with other outside businesses. from the music, those are the things I normally focus on even from the beginning with what we did in Rockefeller. I was the person who brought all those other opportunities. I don't really direct artists creatively. I try to help them do more things outside of music. A rewarding part of my life is watching the people I work with build their own businesses.

There is always a family atmosphere which I love, but I also enjoy seeing them succeed on their own. One element that drove a wedge between business and pleasure for Jay and Dame was The women in the music videos were surrounded by women who amplified their Playboy image, but in real life, Behind Closed Doors, there were two women in particular who they were said to have created tension between these two co-CEOs of Rockefeller Records. The first was Aaliyah, the young r b. star R Kelly once married when he was supposedly only 15 years old. Speaking of R Kelly, Dane Dash has stated that he was not very happy with Jay doing a full album on Rockefeller in 2002 with the singer since disgraced that on September 27, 2022 he was the main jury.

I found him guilty of nine counts of a lot of different things. Dame's opinion was that if you remember the best of both worlds you don't see my name on that I never wanted any part of it. I know I'm not messing with that. I knew it. morally we were not the same referring to Jay so for me Rockefeller was dead it was over I couldn't mess with it it was something that for me I don't want to say unforgivable but I couldn't understand it New York City Hot 97 Dj Funkmaster Flex had spoken on Instagram to shame a day for moving in with Aaliyah after she had been linked to Jay-Z first, that was Jay-Z, the lady first.

Dame made a snake move, tell me I'm lying to you, part of that is why the rock crumbled you were touching Jay-Z's girl, do you remember the house in the Hamptons, no joke, the cameraman who captured the footage of Dame Dash's famous profanity-filled screams during a marketing meeting for Jay to which Dame was not invited has made the suggestion that Dame Dash tried to not only take a Leo from Jay but also from Beyonce at one point, according to choke , no kidding, I mean, nothing happened, like he kissed or had sex or something, did he try to yell at her?

Yes, that's the same thing she did. with Aaliyah Aaliyah fell in love with it Yonce wasn't going to rape Jay like that, we all knew there was a Rockefeller point where Dame wasn't allowed to be around Beyonce, everyone who worked there at the time knew it because he was a scoundrel Dame was going after her Back and yelled at Aaliyah just like she did with Beyonce, but like I said, Beyonce didn't go for that stuff and the only reason Leah could have done it was because you wouldn't be public with her and try to keep those things. private after the time of Aaliyah's

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which took place on August 25, 2001 due to a plane crash in the Bahamas.

Dame Dash had confirmed that marriage could have been on the cards for the two. She was the best person I have ever met. I never met a person. like her in my life, every day we were together we treasured every memory, every day was a special event, whether it was going to a store or a movie or just sitting in a house, wherever we were it was like our little party in our own little world she was the only girl who could hang out with my friends at the level of a friend from home it was like being able to be with your friend and your girl at the same time we really had a lot of fun together. she was definitely going to get married as soon as she had time we were going to get married like after The Matrix she was the one, she was definitely the one for me, it wasn't an official proposal, we were just talking about it, you know, she would just carry herself.

As a normal individual, we would just go to McDonald's or Wendy's or something and people just wouldn't believe it After Jay-Z sailed off into the sunset as his own business entity, his former partners Dame and Biggs set up their own record label on El music group Dame Dash after each Rockefeller artist could choose between going with Jay or staying with Damon Biggs, it was Cameron's local team in Harlem and the diplomats working with the music group Dame Dash even publicly criticized Jay- Z in songs and interviews. with Dame fully supported, imagine how awkward that rivalry must have been considering the musical group Dame Dash was still distributed by Def Jam for a time, the company Jay-Z having become president years later on May 21, 2009 , Jay-Z bought again. his own record deal and record label from Def Jam Recordings for five million dollars and would resign from his position as CEO of Def Jam Records some time after that.

Roc Nation, the new version of Rockefeller that Jay created in 2008, negotiated a dynamic $150 million distribution deal. with the concert company Live Nation, but as we all know, Jay-Z really lived his lyrics when he once rhymed I'm not a businessman I'm a businessman when he entered the Billionaire Boys Club where he now accompanies a couple of others massive acts, one of them is Kanye West, another is Puff, but let me know what you think in the comments, like subscribe and hit the notification bell, if you liked it, follow me on Twitter and Instagram, thanks for watching peace.