Damon Dash, co-owner of Roc-A-Fella Records, was sued last month for attempting to sell an NFT related to Jay-album Z’s “Reasonable Doubt.”
Often, when musicians attempt to profit off a song or an album by “making an NFT of it,” they are referring to a file (typically an image or video) that is related to the music. An NFT is just a type of one-of-a-kind cryptocurrency that is associated with a file. Purchasing an NFT grants you access to the token as well as a copy of the file—nothing more.
However, according to Roc-A-complaint, Fella’s Dash was allegedly attempting to sell the “ownership of the copyright” to “Reasonable Doubt” in addition to the NFT to “Reasonable Doubt” together with the NFT.
While Dash may own a third of the company, according to the label, he does not control the copyright to any individual recordings and hence “can’t sell what he doesn’t own.”
Instead of auctioning off the copyright to “Reasonable Doubt,” Dash is now attempting to sell his whole share in Roc-A-Fella Records in an online auction. It was only three days earlier that Damon Dash announced the creation of an NFT dubbed “It is The Roc,” which according to its description will be given to the “highest bidder on Damon Dash’s 1/3 interest in Roc-A-Fella Inc..”
“Damon Dash is auctioning his 13% interest in Roc-A-Fella Inc., which owns Reasonable Doubt, Jay-first Z’s album,” according to an explanation on the website Dashnftgallery.io. “Roc-A-Fella Inc. owns Reasonable Doubt, Jay-first Z’s album,” according to an explanation on the website Dashnftgallery.io.
A non-binding promise from Dash that he would sell you his ownership in the company at some point in the future is what “It is The Roc” is all about. Selling this form of equity is not something that can be accomplished only through an NFT auction.
Despite the fact that the NFT is visible on OpenSea and Foundation, it has not yet been formally listed on either platform. Instead, Dash is requesting that interested parties make their bids to an Ethereum address that can be seen on the website’s landing page.
Although the auction is represented as “private,” when we scanned the QR code on the site, we were simply instructed to send the money directly to the address listed:
However, the site is asking for a minimum bid of $10,000,000 “or equivalent in any of the following currencies: Bitcoin, Ethereium [sic], Pounds, or Euros.” There is no upper limit on the amount of money you can send to the address.
Scanning the same QR code with the Coinbase Wallet app yields the following results:
And the bidding is supposed to be “private” via QR code on their website… but this is what I see when I scan the code pic.twitter.com/i7Sf8UZ3dy
— Cherie (@cheriehu42) July 23, 2021
The auction will close on July 26 at 5 p.m. Pacific time.
