Jay-Z's Record Label Sues Co-Founder For Trying To Sell First Album As NFT

Roc-A-Fella Records (RAF), co-founded by American rapper Jay-Z and music producer Damon Dash, is now suing the latter for attempting to sell Jay-Z’s debut album as an NFT.

What Happened: According to a report from Rolling Stone, Dash planned to sell an NFT of the copyright to the album Reasonable Doubt at an auction on the SuperFarm platform from June 23 to June 25.

However, the planned auction was intercepted by Roc-A-Fella, which sent letters to SuperFarm and Dash alleging the sale was “improper” and calling for the auction to be canceled.

SuperFarm said it had canceled the sale, but Dash is still reportedly “in the process of finding another venue to consummate this improper transaction,” according to the record label.

Why It Matters: “It’s not a matter of if, only when. But Dash does not even own Reasonable Doubt or its copyright and, therefore, has no right to sell the album or any rights to it. Instead, RAF, Inc. owns all rights to Reasonable Doubt. The sale of this irreplaceable asset must be stopped before it is too late, and Dash must be held accountable for his theft,” alleges the complaint filed by RAF.

Dash claims he wasn’t trying to sell an NFT of Reasonable Doubt, but rather his stake in Roc-A-Fella Records after the label supposedly tried to purchase it at a low price.

The lawsuit details an announcement from SuperFarm, which states that the future owner of the Reasonable Doubt NFT would be entitled to all future revenue generated by the album.

“This marks a new milestone in the history of NFT’s, entitling the new owner to future revenue generated by the unique asset… Selling the copyright to Jay-Z’s Reasonable Doubt as an NFT is a groundbreaking landmark — both for the crypto space and the broader music industry.”

Dash, however, claimed there hadn’t been an announcement at all when asked about the SuperFarm auction details.

“So there’s been no announcement, it’s not minted, none of that. No auction was shut down, you never heard of an announcement,” said Dash to Rolling Stone.

“You know this game. They did it on a Friday so it could just run the whole weekend to devalue my auction.”