Primary Topic
This episode delves into the drama and conflicts involving Dame Dash, including his perspectives on the music industry, his past feuds with notable figures like Diddy and Jay-Z, and his ongoing efforts to impact the industry positively.
Episode Summary
Main Takeaways
- Dame Dash remains a significant and influential figure in hip-hop, not only for his past accomplishments but for his ongoing contributions to the industry.
- Dash expresses strong opinions about the integrity and ethics of business practices within the music industry.
- He reflects on personal growth and his desire to impact positively, including his involvement in community projects and youth education.
- The episode highlights ongoing feuds and unresolved issues between Dash and other industry giants like Diddy and Jay-Z.
- It explores Dash's views on the evolution of the music industry, especially concerning artist rights and entrepreneurship.
Episode Chapters
1. Introduction
Overview of Dame Dash's career and his influence in the music industry. Notable for setting the stage for discussing deeper issues within the industry. Patrick Bet-David: "You can't discuss hip-hop without mentioning Dame Dash."
2. Industry Dynamics
Discussion on the complexities of music industry ethics and business practices, including the exploitation of artists. Dame Dash: "It's about doing things fairly without compromising who you are."
3. Personal Evolution
Dash talks about his personal growth, past business ventures, and his focus on community and youth. Dame Dash: "My fight has always been to protect those who can't protect themselves."
4. Conflicts and Feuds
Heated debate on Dash's historical and current conflicts with other industry figures like Diddy and Jay-Z. Dame Dash: "These feuds are not just personal; they reflect deeper industry problems."
5. Looking Forward
Dash discusses his future aspirations and ongoing projects, emphasizing his commitment to making a positive impact. Dame Dash: "Every step I take is about moving forward and making a difference."
Actionable Advice
- Ethical Engagement: Encourage integrity in business by choosing transparency over secrecy.
- Community Involvement: Get involved in local community projects to make a tangible difference.
- Educate the Youth: Invest time in educating young people about the realities of the industry.
- Support Artist Rights: Advocate for and support movements that aim to protect artists' rights.
- Promote Entrepreneurship: Encourage young entrepreneurs by sharing knowledge and resources.
About This Episode
Patrick Bet-David and Roc-A-Fella Records founder Dame Dash have a heated discussion about Diddy's sex trafficking allegations, Biggie and Tupac's murders, Donald Trump's 2024 presidential campaign & much more!
People
Dame Dash, Diddy, Jay-Z
Companies
Rockefeller Records
Books
None
Guest Name(s):
None
Content Warnings:
None
Transcript
Patrick Bet-David
So if you like interviews, I do. That things get heated. This is going to be one of them because Dame Dash is probably going to be one of the biggest power players in the history of hip hop, having signed Kanye West's partner is Jay Z, that they started Rockefeller in 95, which is kind of weird because a year prior to that is when Tupac got shot up, when he went to visit Big E. And then next year, 96, September 13, is when Tupac gets killed. And they started at that time where in 1995, the biggest rap songs that came out were some of the biggest rap songs ever.
Dear Mama, you know, coolio, gangsters, paradise. You know, I got five on it. I mean, you look at this list of stuff that came up in 95 that decided to compete. These guys did an interesting. He said some very interesting things, saying that Diddy and Biggie wanted to be like him and Jay.
And then he got upset. Some of the stuff got heated when I asked about Aaliyah and some of the allegations that Diddy's been going through lately. We even talked about, you know, Liore Cohen when he said on Breakfast Club, who's Dane Dash? And he really reacted to that in a passionate way. And we talked Trump.
He kept bringing up Trump, Dame, you're going to watch this. You know what I'm talking about, because we had fun afterwards, but we laughed, we argued, we learned. And it's going to be a very, very entertaining and interesting scope, range of topics that we talked about. And on top of that, Dame is now officially on Manect, which means you can ask Dame any question you want. He chooses how he answers you, but you can download the app Manect.
And if you go to this QR code, you can literally text him, okay, ask him the question, pay for it, and he'll respond back either in a text format, audio format, or video format. But he's now officially also on Manect, answering questions that you may have. There will be parts where you're going to say, but you know, I want to know about this. How come he didn't say anything about this? And what about that?
You'll get to ask him whatever questions you got on Manek. But having said that, enjoy this. Very entertaining, in some moments, very heated interview with the one and only Dame dash. 30 seconds. Did you ever think you were making it?
Damon Dash
I feel I'm so close I could take sweet victory. I know this life meant for me. Why would you bet on Goliath when we got bet? David? Valuetainment, giving values contagious.
This world of entrepreneurs. We can't, no value. They hate it now. They run. Homie, look what I become.
I'm the one.
Patrick Bet-David
Okay? So in the hip hop world, I'm a guy that came up from the west coast side. I'm a tupac. I'm a purely more on the west coast, but follow a lot of the, you know, east coast, west coast challenges that was taking place. I'm a class of 96 in high school when I graduate.
And we all know what happened in 96 with Tupac. But you cannot mention the word hip hop and talk about power players that directly, indirectly influenced the entire game without saying the name Dame Dash. You can't. And one of the hardest things to do in a industry like this, or any industry that a lot of people are trying to fight for. The power is to try to manage three things.
Try to stay loved, respected, and feared. It is very hard to do. And he is one of those that was able to do all three. Loved, fear and respect. And, you know, of course, there's a lot of people that maybe he's going to create some enemies while he's doing that.
But you're talking about Racafella founder, him and Jay Z. You're talking about Rockaware that was doing, I think, at 1.700 million a year, almost a billion dollars a year. You're talking about working directly and signing Kanye. If you watch Kanye's documentary, you will see the scene where Dame is sitting up on the stage like this, and he's saying, you can ask Kanye a question and then he kind of gives us commentary and all the stuff that's going on, again, we can go on with names left and right. And obviously, with all the issues that's taking place right now recently within hip hop, there's a lot of names that are coming up, a lot of the raids, I don't know if you know, this one guy named Diddy was raided his house in LA and in Miami, and now names are being dropped with Jay Z, and a lot of other names are coming up.
And if anybody wanted to make a list of names of people, top ten, that can speak on those topics, that know a lot, that maybe others wouldn't want them to talk about and stay quiet, I think, dame, you're probably on that top ten list of people that can comment on a lot of this stuff, specifically a part of history and involvement with that being said. Thanks for being on the podcast, man. Thank you. That was a hell of an intro. How you doing?
How you feeling? I'm good. I'm a little tired, you know, I definitely shoot early. Yes.
Damon Dash
We had to pull up pretty, we're on our way to Gary from here, so. Yeah, and I was up last night at our studio. But I'm good, though. I'm pretty good. I feel secure.
Patrick Bet-David
You feel secure? Define that. What do you mean by secure? You know, I could go to sleep at night and not have to worry about things, you know? And I think that's the most important kind of wealth, is to be guilty free, you know, never compromised.
Now, let me ask you for, I mean, obviously, there's a lot of things I want to go through here with the time that we have together. Lots of stuff that I want to talk to you about.
For a guy like you who, we've watched you from the other side, right? We've watched you in interviews and Rockefeller and stories, in your fire, in your interview with breakfast club boss, entrepreneurship, business hustle, the fight, the grind of coming up. Do you still have the same fire as a startup entrepreneur? Survival. Do you still have that fire today at this phase of your life?
Damon Dash
It's a different kind of fire, but definitely the fire is way iller, you know, just based on being confident of success. So once I complete a dream, I dream bigger. So. And the fight that I've been having is just kind of remaining sucker free, you know, again, being in a position where if someone wants me to do something that I feel might compromise my morals or my integrity, I always had the wherewithal to say, get the fuck outta here. You know, don't ever ask me no shit like that.
And then also be able to be like, yo, did y'all hear what they just said? And then I've been able to actually see people look the other way. So in my world, it's making my dreams come true. And unfortunately, unless you're savvy enough or have someone around you that knows how to raise you money and knows how to do those kind of things, you gotta do it yourself. You have to sometimes create your own industry if you don't want to fit into somebody else's cause, the people that are running that industry, again, have a different kind of moral compass.
So my fight has always been to do things fairly and to do things without robbing creatives and fighting those that are robbing creatives, and then to continue to dream for myself while I'm dreaming for other people. So everything I do as a startup, from my new television network, american new, from these glasses I have on, CEO glasses, the sneakers, to the books, I'm on my way to you know, go do schools with my girl to read books. You know, go talk to the mayor of Gary, who I, you know, Eddie Milton, who I was a big part of his election, and a man that taught me how to pass laws. And then I'm bouncing over to a jail in Chicago, a kids jail, and shut it down. Because, you know, if you could really understand how they're torturing our kids when we're not looking, why that recidivism rate is at 99%.
It's because most of these kids can't read. They're torturing them. They're making them live in moldy jails. And I'm not gonna say any names right now. I'm on my way to Chicago.
But if they don't shut that jail down or fix what's wrong with it, I'm going at everybody. You know? So that's been me, the guy that protects people that can't protect themselves, as well as having to make my own dreams come true without dealing with people that would make me compromise my morals. And at the same time, because I have so many ideas and so many different things that make things work, you know, I have to do it myself out my own pocket. You know what I mean?
So when you're dreaming in verticals, which I am, you know, I do the octopus thing, and there's always ten different things that I'm working on at one time. And, you know, I'm not raising any breads. A dollar come here, it goes into something else. A dollar come here goes into something else. So the original question you asking me, do I have that fire?
More than ever. I'm not using other people's money. I know who to stay away from, who I got to stay away from so I can sleep well at night and I'm trying to help the world. You, you know. So, again, I'm also down with this OSG, which is the principals, you know, hundreds of principals from economically challenged places.
And I go into the schools, I talk to the principals, I talk to the teachers. You know, we have a syllabus from the womb to three years old. And like I said, this OSG is hundreds of principals from economically challenged places. And what I do know and what I'm conscious of are the real problems, the things that make the cycles continue to happen, where it doesn't behoove us, but it behooves somebody else. And now I know the problems, but I know how to actually bring the answers.
And I can do that through entertainment. I could do that through, you know, education. I could do that through anything. Any language you speak, I can speak to you through that language. So, yeah, the drive is there more?
Because I know how to fix the things that are wrong. Very cool. So, and dame for you, where did you get your mindset from? Because I've had a lot of. From Harlem, Italian and from Harlem, all of them.
Patrick Bet-David
But for. Didn't you see paid in full? Yeah, movie paid in full. But what I'm talking about is, like, you know, I have Italy. New York was also filled with a lot of italian mobsters, right?
And they ran it in a certain way. And you're coming up from Harlem and you're doing what you're doing. Was there any inspiration that came from how the italian mob family build what they built or not at all? Definitely a big influence was the Godfather. So I read the book when I was younger because I wanted to know what he was thinking as opposed to what he was saying and the ideals that came with being the Godfather.
Damon Dash
But also a big influence was, you know, the people that I grew up around, you know, like, you know, my family, honor and integrity look, so cool, you know, the godfather and the way he carried things, it just was cool to do things in a way that, you know. Cause honorable's not always convenient. It's never convenient. There's always a test that comes with it to see if you're gonna do what's the right thing or do what's easy or what appears to be. And, yeah, the guy, all those movies, I'm young.
Patrick Bet-David
Scarface, was it direct contact with any of them or. Not at all? What you mean? So, for example, I've had Samuel Bullock. Oh, did I know any?
Damon Dash
Well, I had a barber shop on 112th street, and this dude named Chill sold it to me. And we used to sell weed in the back and had the barber shops in the front. And apparently he had bought it from some Italians in 116 from Pleasant. And, you know, they were trying to take the shot, but he sold it to me. So I had to go down to pleasant with him.
And they were like, hey, chill, you got a lot of nerve coming down. And also, I went to school across the street from rails, so I went to Manhattan center, you know, so, I mean, yeah, we had interaction, and then, you know, there'd be funerals I would go to for people in my family, like my grandmother and all that. And the whole mob used to be there, so. Yeah. Really?
Yeah, but I can't really talk about that. Who had the biggest influence? I know you talk about so many different people, man. And I guess what I'm asking is, who toughened you up? Who taught you street to know how to take that mindset up?
Patrick Bet-David
Street of the word. You said sucker free, right? Because a lot of times, as the saying goes, when a man with money meets a man with experience, the man with money leaves with the experience. The man with the experience leaves with the money. Okay, so how do you go from that world to in the business world, and then, hey, you know, $19 million, you book Jay Z on a tour, and then, boom, you're doing deals with all these bigger guys.
How did you know you could handle sitting across the table from these guys and negotiate with them? So, if you saw it paid in full, that was a story that really happened. I'm about to do the tv show on my own network or collaborative with another, but when you're in survival mode, you know, and the people around you bring you up a certain way. Like, I was born into an honor code. I never knew anything different.
Damon Dash
There was always accountability. So if I did something that would be against the grain, it would be like having a business and a board that would just be very like you did. Like, I wasn't allowed to have a tattoo while I was in the street. You know, I was taught that. Like, I was taught how to do everything.
Like, unless to me, the only way, and to me, a successful criminal, if there is such a word, is one that never goes to jail. And the only way you can do that is if you're advised by an OG or other criminals that have done it before. So I got a formula of how to survive, and it was just being thorough and acting a certain way. And it's nothing that is innate. It's.
People teach. That's why we need men in our lives. Men need to be raised by men, or at least someone that can give them a little more testosterone than estrogen. And again, if you do some clown shit, I got a whole team that's gonna be on my head, you know? And then when you become at a position of a leader, you have to lead by example, because what you do, your crew will do.
So if you were goofy, you have a goofy crew. If you're late, your crew's gonna be late. You know, I would never send anybody in my crew on the front line to do something that I wouldn't do myself. So, you know, being a boss means caring a little more about your crew than yourself. So.
And I don't have any disrespect. I don't get into the politics thing too much. You know, no matter who's in charge, I'm gonna do my thing. But, you know, I lean a certain way. But, you know, I would talk to Kanye a lot about Trump, and he'd be like, yo, he's a winner, and he just keeps winning.
This was back in the date, and I'm like, well, to me, his whole crew is in jail. So if I'm out and Kanye went to jail and Jay went to jail, and people died on my watch and everybody is doing bad and I'm doing good, then I gauge that as an unsuccessful boss, and that means that they're not winning, they're losing. A real boss cares more about the people that he works with before himself, almost like how a parent cares about their family, you know? And again, a lot of what I was taught wasn't to stay in one place, it was to evolve. If I got one block, I need two.
If I was able to get one bird, I'd flip, I'd make another. What the street taught me was how to be independent. And when you're dealing with people that if you don't play the game right, will kill you or you will go to jail, pivoting into a place where people. The recourse isn't jail. Well, I didn't think it was back then, you know what I'm saying?
Or jail or death or murder is very easy. There's no fear there, you know? And, you know, I made a movie about what made me pivot. It was paid in full. So people that I looked up to got killed and their brothers got kidnapped.
And I'm like, you know, if that could happen to them, it can happen to me. So I just took the arrogance and the confidence of the survival of Harlem when crack first came out, the glory days, you know, when, you know, I've been lucky enough to know in Harlem damn near every person in my generation that people talk about, like, people that people put in raps, I hustle with or, you know, I was friends with or still am, and then go into the rap business and, you know, for the last, like, since 2000, let's say 96. Well, I started in like, 96, 94. And it's 2024. And, you know, up till last week, people are still saying my names and raps from biggie smalls to future.
Future is talking about my past in the present, you know, so that's the impact that I've had and knocking the world down. But again, it was my survival skills and the Harlem, the accountability of people. And then being scared of going to jail. Cause that was fair for me. I did not want to go to jail.
That's why I knew I wasn't cut out to be a criminal. Because unless jail is all right with being on your resume, actually, you know, it's 85% to 90% chance at some point you gotta go, and you have to be all right with that. And you won't be able to get yourself out by, you know, if you're honorable, by telling on the people that you did the work with that you actually care about. If you're not willing to kill, then you gotta stop. You gotta pivot.
So at a certain age, I'm like, yo, I'm not willing to do all this shit, especially time. How old were you when you made that decision? 18. You know, I put. Actually, at 16, I put myself in boarding school, South Kent in.
Patrick Bet-David
So right after mom passed, when my. Mother died, I went to the street hard, heavy. I was hustling hard. You know, I was 142nd in Lenox with the lynch mob. Even I wasn't down with the lynch mob.
Damon Dash
I was on the same block as the lynch mob. And those were my boys. And you know what happened was when I was 15. Cause I was spoiled my whole life. My mother made sure I had everything.
And I grew up in 1199, which, if you're from New York, it's like. It was like day camp, it was gyms, and it was like the suburbs in the hood, you know what I mean? It was that kind of thing. How did mom make money? She was.
Well, she did everything. She was an entrepreneur. So she was always. She would sell clothes, she would sell anything. She was an entrepreneur.
She had to get a job. She got a job, but I went on vacation. She was like, knew how to buy things wholesale. So always would have sneakers. Ten pair of sneakers.
I had the pinball machine. I was a spoiled kid, and my mother died when I was 16. But what happened was when I was 15, because I was spoiled, I'm like, mom, these Suzuki jeeps had come out. They were only ten grand. And I'm like, mom, can you buy me a Suzuki?
She's like, man, you can't even drive a car. You're 16. You can't get in New York. You can't get a license to get 18. So I got kicked out of every private school that you could get kicked out of.
And they put me in Manhattan center, the one that's across the street from raos. And I grew up with legends like Carlton Hines. Time over there that's where I learned the game. And, you know, my mother died. Well, I started to hustle there.
And then when my mother died when I was 16, you know, my homeboys, they started to do things that I wasn't ready to do. They was my age. They started catching bodies, and I had an opportunity to have a scholarship years before. Cause I used to box at the boys club, but I went and got homesick, and they were like, if you ever want to go, go. So when my mother died that year, I hustled hard.
My boys started to get a little crazy, and I put myself back in. I just put myself boarding school like that. Independently? Yeah. Yeah.
I didn't want to have to kill anybody. So who it was guaranteed, the way. You were going with the friends that were taking people out? No way. I wasn't.
So it was like everyone had bodies. Like, everyone had a body. And we were teenagers. We were young. Did somebody check you?
Patrick Bet-David
Meaning, like, was there a man? Cause, you know, how, you know, you couldn't check me. Nobody could check me. Not even, like, an uncle or a coach or a father. You gotta think about getting more money than anyone older than you.
Damon Dash
And the only people that were around me that had more money than me got it from hustling. So that's all I knew at that point. Was there anybody that's like. Like, damn, you gotta leave this life. And, well, it wasn't leave this.
Okay, so you know what I'm asking, right? I'm telling you, the dynamics of my family, you know, they kind of found out I was in the street in certain blocks, and I remember I had my cousin with me, and he was like. And they were like, yo, you can't have both of y'all out there. We can't watch both of you. And I was like, I didn't know y'all was watching me at all, you know?
Cause I was doing my own thing. And, you know, I wouldn't say super check, like, you know, you know, Malik, yoba, like, I grew up with them as well. Those guys were older than me, and, you know, I hustled on the west side, and, you know, I'm from the east, and most cats from the east side couldn't really do that, go to the west side and scramble. And so, you know, those guys were older than me. They were like, kind of r and b dudes, you know, and they used to do things I didn't, but they were, like, older.
And they kind of raised me up to that point. And they always used to be like. Cause they never hustled. They'd be like, you know, they would give me a hard time. But.
Patrick Bet-David
But there was no man that you feared that kind of put you in your place and said, Dame, leave this life. No, nobody liked that. No, no. There were men that I don't say feared like I had. There would be things that my crew would be doing or people that I looked up to, and I'd be ready to go.
Damon Dash
Like, I throw in my black right now. Let's go. And they would be like, nah, you stay here. And I used to wonder why. But years later, if you look at the network, I was able to make a movie about it called honor up.
And I was able to put my real Og, the person that hit me with my first pack in the movie, and have him act as my Og. And, you know, when I was able to ask him on the set, like, why y'all? You know, he was like, yo, it wasn't for you, man. You know, we knew that you had a better life and we bet, right? So, you know, Og's job is to make sure that someone doesn't hurt themselves if they're a real Og.
And there's been plenty of times I've had to have that conversation with people like, yo, you killing men. Like, you know, that's not sustainable. And I tell them, like, it ain't no girls in jail. But as far as for me, it wasn't no one that could scare me out of hustling, other than the street itself. So the situation that happened with paid in full, rich Porter and all that, that's what scared me.
And that's when I pivoted out the street and I went into music. But then getting into the music business, I was like, man, this is crazy. I'm out of here. And that's what made me pivot into fashion and doing all the other things that I did. So 89, you're 18 years old because you're born at 71, right?
Patrick Bet-David
So 89, you're 18. You leave it. You go into music. Bless you. You go into music.
What do you do between 89 and 95 before you start Rockefeller like, what were you doing then to make money? So I had got a record deal at 19 with Atlantic, with Kevin Woodley. He was in, well, I'm not gonna say Kevin Woodley, Clark Kent. So what happened was my cousin Darian, Stacey Dash's brother, he always was doing some trickery with some brilliant. He always had, like, a scam going or scheme, but intelligent as hell.
Damon Dash
And he was like, yo, you get money. We should get in the music business. And I'm like, I'm not getting that right now. I didn't have too much of an interest in it, you know? And, you know, when things got hot, as far as with the paid in full situation, then I entertained it.
And he went to college, and his stepfather, Cecil Holmes, he was the president of Casablanca records and a big a and R. And his a and R or intern, was Kevin Woodley, who now worked at Warner or Atlantic. So they sent me over there while I was going over there, or, you know, Cecil hooked it up so that we could go and meet this, you know, dude, Kevin Whitley, who was a and R at Atlantic, and he had me shopping these two groups over there, and I kept going over there. You know, I'm 19, I'm 18. I'm going back and forth.
They curving me, keeping me in the lobby, and I just couldn't take it anymore. And I ran into clark in the lobby, and, you know, he had just got there, and he basically signed my first act with East west and with Atlantic. But I had original flavor in the future sound. But when we got signed, dos effects got signed. And I remember Clark let me hear the demo.
Those dudes are ill, you know? And I actually stole the demo. I stole it, but he left it in my car, and I made a copy of it, and I was playing it for everybody. But, you know, when they came out, they did so well, that original flavor and the future sound got left behind completely. And then I had to learn how to do it myself.
So Clark Kent introduced me to Jay Z. He introduced me to ski from original flavor. Got it. He brought me all around the country. Cause he was a dj, and he was, like, just showing me the game.
So I would go with him, and we had this thing that when he would sign an artist, I'd give him ten grand, and he'd go buy pellies. And I was like, in the music business, there was always some type of skim going on in some way, shape, or form. With every transaction, someone got paid a little on the side. See, that's the problem with the music business, because the things that were going on back then, I just don't think they'd be legal now in hindsight. So that wouldn't be legal today to do.
He worked for Atlantic, and he's giving. Me, oh, I got it. I got it. Makes sense. Totally get it.
So a lot of times with people. Selling away, a lot of suckers, like. What a lot of people do is they have access to somebody famous or somebody that people think that, you know, can get them the plug. They'll make you, like, if you want to have a meeting with such and such, they'll make you pay them, you know, and then they'll let. And, you know, they won't tell the boss, they won't.
That they actually just got some money to let this person come in and meet you. And not breaking bread purely for an. Introduction, you're getting paid, and it's on you to close or sell or do whatever you do. Yeah, but, you know. But you don't let the person that's doing that know.
Patrick Bet-David
Got it. So again, it's like the government, man. You know, it's people that don't use their own money that pay. A lot of people, they pay who they want to pay. What I'm coming to find out is they usually pay the person that they're physically entangled with, whether it's male or female.
Damon Dash
You know what I mean? And, you know, that's the way it moves around like that. So it was like, friends keep the money and they pass it off to other friends, whatever connection they have. And that's the way you gotta get a deal. And everyone gets paid.
So even in, like, again, the government, you think, you know, you're outsourcing everything to the private sector. So, you know, you don't think anyone's ever getting some kind. Everyone gets a kickback. That's all it is. Sure.
Patrick Bet-David
I mean, that's how the whole lobbyists make their money. It's another form of lobbying, was what you're saying. Just like raising money, you know, you raise money, you get a promote or whatever. It's the same thing, bro. So Clark, Ken from Atlantic is giving you these guys, and he's a dj.
You give him ten grand and, you know, so then through him, you meet Jay. At this point, before you met him, did you know. Have you heard about Jay? Not at all. Nothing?
Damon Dash
Nothing. When did you know that he had a special talent with Jay, I knew he could rap. Cause he could rap really fast. But him and I were just real cool. Cause, you know, we were.
At that time, I started getting back in the street a little bit, you know, had the plug, right. So, you know, I passed him the plug, you know what I mean? Cause, you know, he was hustling different. He was still copping from the hill. So I had to introduce him to his man, somebody he's still with to this day, you know.
And also another, you know, I just. What I usually do is come to a block and be like, you're not hustling right. You know what I'm saying? And I'd be like, get him out of here. Cut the middleman out.
Get. You know, and that's what I kind of did. Like, I didn't even want to. I mean, I don't even get to that story. But, you know, it was like, yeah, we just started to kick it and do things in the street or not the street street, but, you know, elevate whatever game that he had, as well as us being on the road and him rapping with original flavor.
And, you know, for a long time, you know, I shopped Jay to every single record company. They all said no. Kevin Lau said no. Lior said no. Liore said no.
Yeah, Kevin Lyles worked for Liore. And, wow. They all said no, bro. Every single one of them. No one.
That's why I didn't do it myself. I tried to get him signed, but I couldn't. What were they saying? What's the. When they said no, too old rap, too fast.
Jazz had. He was with jazz, and jazz wasn't so successful. Yeah. So it's just his look. He didn't.
So what happened was, he's from Brooklyn. And again, what you'll see a lot of time is they're always saying, I'm talking about him, but if you asking me questions about my story, you know, he's part of it. So I don't like to really talk about him so much. But, you know, he was a Brooklyn cat, and he dressed like a Brooklyn cat. He didn't.
You know, he didn't have it all together the way. So my guys used to tease him all day. All day, all day. Every little thing he did they thought was corny. And we just kind of holmed him up, you know what I mean?
But initially, we thought he was cool. I thought he was cool. Cause he was wearing night airs, and most dudes at the time from Brooklyn didn't wear night airs. And so that's why I kind of thought he was cool. But I knew he could rap.
And then we got to know each other in a different way. Pause. You know, we were, you know, doing certain things, like passing the plug. And we became brothers. And then, you know, we started Rockefeller just because no one else would sign us, you know.
Patrick Bet-David
That's it. That's it. So let me ask you. So was there, you know, how sometimes. We tried it the easy way and it didn't work out?
Damon Dash
And again, if I'm a thorough person, that comes from a certain cloth. If I walk in a room full of people that are completely different, raise different, different value systems, and they're asking me to do certain things. Like the day we did the deal with Def Jam as a co venture, Lior asked me to go fight another black man for him. And I'm like, are you fighting any of my battles? He tried me.
It was like, immediately, he tried me to make me fight for his battles in a culture that wasn't. And I just knew how to say no. Like, I just. What I can do, clearly, is it doesn't make me. Cause I'm a businessman.
See, creatives, it's hard for them to say no. They're non confrontational. They speak through their art. And you can push a creative to do things in the moment because they don't know how to verbally defend themselves. With me, I have no problem being honest and telling you the truth.
I don't have a problem asking for my money or saying, how much am I getting paid? Or, how much are we getting paid? How we break. I don't. Those questions that make people, especially creatives, awkward don't make me feel awkward, you know?
So that was always my job. What a great combo, though. Yeah, what a great combo. It's a one two punch, right? That was fantastic.
Patrick Bet-David
So let me ask you, you know how when I was 21 years old, I'm broke, I got nothing going on? There's this denny's we would go to, and I would sit with one of my friends, Saul, who's upstairs right now, and it was me, him and another guy. And we would dream, hey, one day we're gonna do this, and we're gonna take over the world, and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Here's what we're gonna be doing. Did you and Jay have that moment?
And then you said, you know what? Screwed. We're gonna call it Rockefeller. And is it, you know, called after Rockefeller because we gonna become tycoons and moguls? Was there a moment between the two of you?
Damon Dash
It wasn't between the two of us. It was a crew of us. But I used to sit and write and plot all day, and I still do. So if you ask my crew now, the first thing I do when I get up in the morning is we get around the table, get the colored papers and the markers, and we talk about how we gonna eat. It's always been that plot and plan, always.
And it was more like a moment that we were in St. Thomas, me, him, and biggs, and we were like, fuck it, let's just do it ourself, you know? But we always knew we had to do it ourself. It kind of felt like at least I did, just based on the way the system was set up. And, like, no one in that business listens to you unless they have to.
You understand what I mean? Like, a lot of times, people that are in a position of power in the music business are in a position of power because, again, they're willing to compromise and do things that the average man would not do. And again, I wouldn't do that. So then at the end, you get people that have funny ways in those positions that only look out for people that they have things on, and they only listen because they don't like a person that will compromise everything to get to the top. But once they get to the top, that person that they didn't like and disrespected before that might got sent to the store or sent to drive someone's car, all of a sudden, they're your boss, and you hate that person, but you have to listen to them, because they're gonna be now the person in position of your destiny.
Even in the music business, like, I'll know a PD, like a program director or someone that, you know, does the videos and or works in a position where they can, you know, help an artist. And when they walk in the room, every artist, and everybody kisses their ass. The minute they lose that job, no one talks to them no more, you know? Cause they don't have to. So I don't talk to people unless I want to, which may not be the best business Ackerman, but based on the temperature right now, I'm really happy I stuck to my gun.
Patrick Bet-David
By the way, I just googled right now, 95 top 40 hip hop songs of 95. Okay, so this is when you guys start. Rockefeller, here's who's on this list. Number one, dear mama. Tupac.
Okay. Then they have mob deep shook ones, part two. Then it's Krs one Mc's. Act like they don't know, right? Then you have loonies.
I got five on it, which was a big hit. Method man. I'll be there for you. You're all I need to get by, you know. Featuring Mary J.
Blige. You got old, dirty bastard. Shimmy, shimmy. Yup. You know, so that was a big hit.
GZA. Liquid swords. Then you have run in. Then you have ice cream, featuring method man Ghostface. Then you got Dre.
Keep their heads ringing. Tupac. So many tears you see the competition. This is insane. So I'm the first of the month.
Bone thugs and harmony, that was an incredible album. You got Ice Cube Friday. This is 95. We're talking about all the mob survival, the fittest. You got to remember back then, there was no Internet, so only a select few were getting heard.
Damon Dash
And in order to get heard, you had to be like, super. And that was what we had to break into guys like that that had record deals or people, you know, majors backing them. So, you know, that's that. That's what was, like, kind of incredible about, you know, in hindsight, you got to remember when I was doing all those things. Yeah, I was 21, 22.
I retired from Rockefeller at 35, you know, so those things I was doing was self taught, and no one gave me no nepotism, did it ourselves, and was making more money than mostly every single person that I had met in my life, in my family, my teachers, my principals, everyone that I thought was rich, I had more money than by the time I was 22 or 23 in business, I had a bigger first generation business. You know what I mean? Like, sometimes I'm around people that are like, you know, 1st, 2nd, 3rd generation. And it's a different life when you don't have to worry about nothing. Ever since the day you opened your eyes, it might not be less stressful.
Cause everyone has the same amount of problems, no matter money, race, or whatever. It's just different first generation. So when I'm around people that got money and they got it from their family, I don't care how much money. Totally understand as far as the character, because I'm first generation, I'm out here fighting. I'm that person's father or grandfather, you know what I mean?
So. And in school, it was like that. When I went to boarding school, anywhere I go, I always took pride in the fact that I could break a social class at such a young age on my own without any help from anybody that was related to me. And by the way, while you're saying. I mean, obviously, I relate to that.
Patrick Bet-David
I relate to what it is to be. My dad was a cashier at a 99 cent store. Yesterday, 99 cent store shut down all their stores. He was a cashier at Englewood, California, right next to great western form. By the way, gangsters paradise also came out that same year.
But let me continue with this here. 94. We hit like 96. I know, but what I'm going here is 94. November 3094 is when Tupac gets shot, right when he's in the studio, Chris you know, Biggie, the whole controversy.
What happened there? Then he comes out, then he gets shot the second time. 9696. 913 is when he dies. He writes, hit him up.
6496. So you're starting 95. You said you were in same time as you guys are talking about Rockefeller with Biggie and Jay Z. What's east coast big? Oh, biggs, I'm sorry.
They said, okay, so what's. What's East coast west coast looking like at this time? How. How. How hot are things right now?
Damon Dash
I mean, it was. They were briefing with Biggie, so, you know. You know, we were, like, the only ones that would stand next to Biggie at the time. So if you notice, we made records. Brooklyn findings, which I produced with Clark Kent, was made.
And, you know, he was in our videos ain't no nigger and all that. Biggie was the only person that I used to smoke with. I didn't smoke before at all. We used to drink and, you know, supposedly Jay and Big went to school together, but Jay didn't know him, you know. And our thing was because we were doing the stuff, like going in and getting the money and doing the pop in the bottles and all that.
In that moment, we had always felt that Biggie and puff were copying us. Always. They were always like, they'd see us in the club and it seemed like the next day a record would be made. You thought Biggie and Puff were copying you guys? No.
They were. No. No. And who's we? It's Unj.
Yeah. The whole crew. Rockefeller. We was really getting money, you know, I mean, so, you know, no disrespect to Biggie, but it was a different hustle. We weren't, like, on the street pitching work, you know.
I mean, we was a connects, connects, connect. So it was a different kind of thing. But that lifestyle of hustler and all that, that was us. That was them copying us for sure. For sure.
And, you know, so we kind of had problems. So I would, like, run up sometimes. And, you know, I was confrontational with Biggie. And at first. And when we finally got cool and he came to our video.
Cause again, this is when no one would mess with him. And he came through. And again, we were strategic. So every time we did a video, we'd have a meeting about what would be the most big willy shit we could do. So what we came up with, we go to bbqs and have a whole meeting about it.
You know, I'm down with a crew called the best out from Harlem. And you know, it was a lot of hood structure to it, you know what I mean? Like, we had board meetings, certain places and shit like that. But we came up with. What we came up with was using real money, play monopoly with real money and just had cristal all over the table.
So, you know, a lot of heavyweights were there. And he pulls in and we start kicking it. And I'm like, man, we get into a drinking contest, and, you know, he's 300 pounds. And I just got too drunk this night. He got too drunk.
We both got drunk. And the next day, Biggs and Jay hit me. And they're like, you know, you was no good last night, or Jay really did. And that was, like, the first time he'd ever said anything like that. And I called Biggs.
I said, what happened? He was like, man, he was telling him he's your favorite rapper. You guys. You were all trying to get in his car. Like, I was like, what?
So then, you know, I got mad or whatever. We went down to daddy's house. Pause. And we booked them to open up for Jay in New Orleans so that Jay could perform in front of him. And then we got real cool.
And then from there, for Biggie to. Open up in front of Jay. No. So he booking Biggie. He could perform.
A lot of people come see Biggie. Right? And Jay would open for him. Jaycee would open for Biggie. Yeah.
Patrick Bet-David
Okay. That's what we booked. We did. Yeah. And at this point, who is bigger?
Damon Dash
Biggie. Hell. Okay. Biggie had a deal with puff. See, Biggie always wanted to act.
At that point, Biggie was gonna. What was supposed to happen was he was gonna do. He did that double album. He was gonna do a triple album. Then he was gonna come to Rockefeller with us.
Patrick Bet-David
Commission. The commission. The commission. So he was gonna do the commission with you guys. Yeah.
Damon Dash
I was trying to get all. So I tried again, you know, bitch ass thief, stout. I tried to sign the firm. So I was trying to get the firm that record in reasonable doubt that AZ. Now, I was supposed to show up for that record, but he didn't.
But I was trying to give the firm a deal. I was trying to get the whole. That's why I had signed clue. But, you know, again, I tell my ideas and see stout, you know, being the bitch that he is, he would go around my back and do the deals, you know. And, you know, these are the guys that.
The problem in that business is a lot of non creative people take advantage of creative people and they steal the creative people's ideas and then go and sell them to the devil. The devil's money. You know what I mean? And that's what I didn't use. I never used to use the devil's money, and I still won't.
Patrick Bet-David
Who's the devil's money? Whoever's not creative that's exploiting an artist. Like a Leo Cohen type of guy. Or Cohen. He's a culture vulture.
Damon Dash
I made the term up just for him. You know what I mean? Did you hear what he said about you on Charlemagne years ago? Yeah. I've been punishing him for that.
You know, I benched him. He used to be in the music business. So now, you know, he has to. Sit on this one here. Yeah.
Where he. He says, who's Dame Dash? I don't know Dame Dash. So usually what happens algorithmically, you know, another culture always tries to erase another culture, that they're trying to empower history so that all their leaders they make don't exist. So that's exactly what they do.
They try to erase our history. But the thing that. Where he had the gall was that he did it on one of what's supposedly our platform in front of our people, and he did it so recklessly that he was unconscious, that we were all watching. So to sit there and say, damon, I don't know him. What are you saying?
When he's not around, you're trying to act like he doesn't exist because you want to take credit for everything that he did. And that's what Steve Stout did, and that's what Lior does. If I'm a person that won't let you rob an artist and your business model is robbing artists, of course you're going to try to paint a picture of me doing things. I'm not being difficult because I'm difficult for you, Rob. I don't let you rob the artist.
Patrick Bet-David
Can you play the second half of that? Just press play real quick. Trying to trigger me? No, not at all. You've already addressed it, but I think.
Damon Dash
It helped change the course of the crack epidemic. Oh, this is him saying, I don't know. What's this opioid thing? Man, he got you back then being a crackhead wasn't cool. Now it's.
They seem like they're. They're making it cool to be drinking lean and syrup. And it's the most dangerous, dangerous thing. That'S facing.
Patrick Bet-David
Our society. So why sign an artist that would promote that?
Damon Dash
Because I already answered that question. You weren't talking.
Patrick Bet-David
Or issues and I said, talent. But I have to. I can't give up on people. That's hypocritical, though. You know, it's opportunistic.
Damon Dash
Yeah, I got. I got people to feed. We're proud of you. I got a business to run. You're gonna make Dame Dash take this clip and call you a culture vulture.
Patrick Bet-David
Who's them, Dash? I don't even know him. I don't even know him. So how many times have you meetings with him? I don't even know.
How many times have I sat with them for him to say something like that? That's why it's ridiculous. And everyone laughed at him. I couldn't even count the times. How many times he sat with me.
Damon Dash
You know what I mean? I was his boss. That's how I looked at it. You know what I mean? I was representing my company.
He was representing someone else's. So he needed you. Cause you were bringing opportunities to him. Well, he needed volume for his company. Makes sense.
That's what they needed. But it wasn't his company. It was universal. They had got bought. Got it.
And what I never liked about that situation is, how did he keep a job and Russell didn't. You know what I mean? And then they got Russell sitting in the lobby trying to get a deal. I'm like, yeah, I can't do that to Russell. It was Russell's joint.
And that's what usually happens, right? The person that starts it like a Russell ends up not getting completely the credit for it down the line. So he's gonna take credit for def jam, too, in a minute. He's gonna say he don't know Russell. You know what I mean?
That's what they do. And the thing that was problematic about that is I didn't like when Charlamagne said, you're gonna make Damon call you a culture vulture. Why didn't he just call him a culture vulture and check him right there? And that's the problem I be having with people from our culture. When they got that culture vulture on the show, like a Noriega or whatever, they never ask them the real questions, but they'll ask me everything under the sun.
See, I say things in public because I'm cool with the accountability. Challenge me. Show me where I'm wrong. Show me a tape or video with some receipts that prove me wrong, and I'll have a conversation with Liore Jay, Steve Stout, any one of those people that have been painting a picture of me, of being a certain way so that other people won't work with me. I would challenge each one of them, and we could.
Let's see how many people are mad that you've robbed and see how many people are mad that I made rich. You understand what I'm saying? And when you hear this, I'm difficult. Yelling. I've been working with principals.
If you personally have had an experience with me that's been pleasant, why would you listen to someone say that they've had an unpleasant experience? And the person that's saying they've had an unpleasant experience is usually someone that has way more unpleasant experiences. Robbing artists. I'm just the guy that checks you for robbing artists. You know what he does now?
Yeah. He works at YouTube. He does customer service. Can you pull it up? See, he's the global head of music for YouTube.
Right? So that's the reason why they're suppressing cpMs, and they don't give you the full benefit of it, and they're not. YouTube is knocking. You're on YouTube, right? Yeah, of course.
You know your CPM? Yeah. What is it? It varies depending on what it is and what companies advertise on. No, no, no.
It's programmatic. The CPMs is what the money you get from the commercials that you don't get. So you don't. 5%, if that's what you're saying. No, no, no.
Not from YouTube. You do not get 55%. That's impossible. You wouldn't even be able to get accounting from YouTube. They get an email, and then they have tumor get to you.
So what happens is, and you're a genius, right? You're smart, you've done business, but you're letting them rob you, and you don't even know how they're robbing, and that's how they take advantage. Do you get the benefit of your data? No, not from YouTube or any other social media third party that you deal with. You don't.
You don't have the ad tech. You don't understand it. Most people do not. Right? Because I have a television network, and I had to figure out how to do it.
I know what programmatic is. I know what it is with ad tech, is to have servers and ad tags and ad stacks and waterfalls and all that. I get it now. So what I do know is this. If you're getting a $22 cpm, let's say you're gonna try to figure it out now, right?
Patrick Bet-David
Yeah, I am. So if there. If. Let's say, generally speaking, if you look at YouTube, they'll be like, you get two $3 CPN, right? But you don't know how much they're getting.
Damon Dash
So they could be getting $23 and they're only giving you three. No accounting. And again, they're selling your data to advertisers and you don't get the benefit of it. So how smart are you? So that's how they're taking advantage of us.
So that's what I had to figure out early. And then I make every let everyone, even including yourself and everyone else that's in the game and doesn't know how to get paid in the language they speak and don't understand that you're trusting Lior with your cpms and he's taking full advantage of you. So that's why I had to build my own. Because I don't care how much money I make. I want to know how much money you make off me and how you get it.
So if you're giving me $10, you must be making 100. And I'm not going to do all the work, walk on and be a Johnny and be a sucker and then have to compromise my integrity to get just 10% of what I use. So you got to look back at my past. I'm the guy that was saying, yo, you should own your masters. You know, if you go back to the other breakfast club interview, you know, in 2000, whatever, whatever it was, and I'm like, yo, calling Charlamagne to chatty Patty.
And I'm telling everybody, I'm not saying quit your job. I'm saying, why you have a job. Invest in your dream or you a sucker. Cause you working for somebody else's dream. And I know you gotta pay the bills, but there's 8 hours.
There's 24 hours in a day. Eight. You working, you got 16 to do other things. It's interesting to me that this guy goes from there to not being YouTube global head of music. Yeah.
Cause he knew how to rob music. He invented the 360, so now he knows how to rob. Digital is a whole new world. It is. I mean, you AI.
So think about this like, you know, like I said, I do this thing with the principals. A teacher and a principal right now did not get taught about AI, CPM, web three, or any of the futuristic things that are happening now in school. So how are they gonna teach a student? How could the student be smarter than the teacher right now? And that's what's happening.
Patrick Bet-David
But that's the case still. I know. So then how are they still teaching? So he understood the game enough. The reason why the 360 deal was made was he was so mad that they couldn't get no money from Rockaware.
Damon Dash
Cause I named it Rocketware, not Rockefeller, so they couldn't benefit from the name. But people still knew the symbolism. They knew what it was. So it wasn't owned by Rockefeller. It's two separate companies, several entities.
Fuck, yeah. And then you had the structure with Jay Z as the same structure as, like, was it a 50 50 type of deal? Yeah, between me and him and whoever was it. See, the thing is, if I would have known better back then, I would have just licensed it. I wouldn't have split the brand.
But, you know, you got to learn. You live and you learn. But also, you didn't mention I put Rachel Roy on, which is high pass. I put Kevin Hart on. I put Lee Daniels on in every vertical.
It's not just a music. I put people on in every vertical. So the biggest comedian right now, even though he's the shortest, would be Kevin Hart, and he won't help. And, you know, look who's running in music, you know, and tv. Lee Daniels.
You know what I mean? In fashion. Rachel Roy, I've made hundred million dollar companies in every vertical. But the problem is, what's your net worth today? Zero.
Zero? Zip. It's all in the street. Zip period. When you say zip, you mean everything is in paper.
Patrick Bet-David
Right now. Every single thing I got is in my dreams. I don't hold no money. There is no net worth. I don't know.
Yeah, but I mean, if Rockaware was doing 700 million a year, if you combine all your companies right now, what would you say the revenue is today? That's gross. That's not net. No, I know. That's the gross billions today.
Damon Dash
Oh. Now, I don't know what rock was doing. We sold it. And again, what I'm asking is, where you at today? Like all these things that you have going on right now.
Right now, the volume of America New, zero or not zero? We have 50,000 downloads in a couple of. But without raising money, right now, I'm investing in my vertical. So I have eight verticals and eight companies. How would I evaluate it?
Well, if I were to say that american new has 50,000 downloads, and, you know, I would say the extra strategy would be $100 per download or person that downloads it. That's what I would evaluate. Everyone has a different evaluation. Not 5 million. It would be 50,000,100 times 50.
Patrick Bet-David
50,000 times $100. Yeah, 50,000 times $100. Is 5 million. Oh, so then that would be worth 5 million. Yeah.
Damon Dash
So, whatever. So then if you look at what the book sold, you know, it's first. And this is year one. Like, you know, year, you know, six months in, three months in book. First year, 60,000 books.
But there's a whole franchise, you know, the catalog that I have all those things. So let's. Let's go back to. Let's go back to 95. So at this point, you have biggie.
Patrick Bet-David
Open up for Jay. Open up for biggie. Okay, so you're in between. You guys are doing what you're doing with Rockefeller. You got.
Diddy's doing what he's doing over there with bad boy. You got, you know, pac, all the guys on the west coast doing what they're doing with Suge. But you're saying they're trying to be us, not there. I just said biggie at that point. Biggie.
Damon Dash
And I'm gonna say biggie. But puff, they were copying us. You know what I'm saying? Okay. I can't see that, because Puff is known for copying, so his model is a form of copy.
In this moment, what we never did. Yeah. We always had this kind of thing. No matter what. He don't knock me.
I don't knock him in public. We deal with our things in private. And pause. And that was, again, the honor system, that code that I abide by. So I don't sit here and especially now.
I mean, I can't. Even though, you know, I don't know who's right, who's wrong. I just think whoever's lying should get punished, period. Whoever's lying should come out with the. Whole rating and everything that through.
Yeah. So whoever is lying should get punished. So if Puff's lying, then he got, you know, it is what it is, and if these people are lying on, then it is what it is, and the truth will come out, period. So. But just because.
Patrick Bet-David
How's your relation? Do you guys have a relationship till today or. No, just. We all know each other, you know? But I was a guy that back then.
Damon Dash
I'm not an r and B like, you remember Stax records in Motown? Mm hmm. I would look at bad boy like Motown, and we were like stacks records. We were more like the gangsters and shit. Not to say, like, on some tough shit, but just that's what we were about.
More aggressive living, and they were more like r and b cats. Cats that would be with pants and barefooted and shit like that. So I wasn't doing none of that. So we always had a clear line. There was a respect, but it was always a competition.
You know what I mean? So I'm from Harlem. Harlem. He was from espionage, so it's different, you know? But again, I'm not going to do that and knock him just because of respect for the brotherhood of hip hop.
Patrick Bet-David
Let me. Let me maybe. Let me ask the question, since we're on this, because again, your. This is. This is like 1962 and a two and a half.
That's when target, Walmart, Kmart, all got started with these super savings centers. Like, that was the year. Like, what year came up? Walmart came our target, 1962 and a half. Hey, what is the era of the american sports car?
Late fifties, early fifties. Corvette Mustang. Da da da da da. Right? 19, 95, 96.
Like, this is the era. Right. That. You know how long ago that was? I know.
So. But you can't really expect me to remember every emotion. Well, no, you're not. But. But I think.
But I think for a guy like. You, the thing is, the shit I'd be doing now. Yeah. Occupies my brain more than my. I totally get it.
Damon Dash
But. And to me, it's more impactful. So, like, you know, there's also DD 172. Did you know about. I did.
Patrick Bet-David
I saw DD 172 and I can. Show you, like, to me, that was more impactful than Rockefeller. It's just that. You know about Rockefeller, but the things that I did, the way it helped and sculpture the DNA now, but I'm. Listening, so can I express.
Can I. Can I share with you maybe. Maybe where my interest is. Okay. And I'll give you where my interest with this is.
Damon Dash
So what you're doing is while you're interviewing me, you're googling shit and I'm not doing it. Rob is doing it. I'm pretty good. What's your network? Because you went to my network.
Patrick Bet-David
Yeah. Again, I think save. I didn't do that. I guess I think saving money does what he does. Is he.
He is anything you're saying, even when you said the movie, just so you can see. No, he's not fact checking out for you to see, but I want to ask you this question. I want to ask you this question. I have. Pull up DD 172.
Yeah, he did. It's right there, top left. DD 172 is a media collective founded by american entrepreneur Daymond Dash. Yeah, he did like that. So you guys are from.
Damon Dash
You guys are prepared. So the question for you is, so what is. What is a. I don't know. What's the most painful moment in your.
Life when Aaliyah died. Okay, so when that happened, I think we were all shocked. I was broken. I know you were nobody more than. You, because you guys, our mother and father were.
But they didn't move on at all, ever. You can't. But, yeah, it was very painful there. Do you still listen to any of her music or. No.
It hurts so much. Like on her birthday one day. I was listening to it, I forgot. With Nicolette and this girl, big Dusa. Cause she's a lear fan.
And we were. I was trying to write for a movie, and that shit had me crying. I was crying. I didn't like the way I felt. You know, that's something.
It's a feeling that you have to learn to live with. But I was, you know, I was really in love with. And she died tragically. Dame, did that event ever want you to find out exactly who was behind it and what happened? Or did you block all the theories that people were presenting behind it where you.
Patrick Bet-David
Or was it, like, I'm gonna get to the bottom of it and find out exactly what happened? I mean, I knew what happened, so I didn't have to get to the bottom of it. Does what the media and the market write about what happened? Matt? If I know what happens, why would I give a fuck about what the media said?
Damon Dash
That's like saying, I'm writing about my girl and I'm with her every day. You understand? I mean. Yeah. So I don't do the media so much.
You know what I mean? Like, of course that I've heard. They said I'm like everyone to me gets their turn in some conspiracy. So, again, when you know what people write about you personally, it's hard to believe everything. That's great.
So I don't. To me, it's an oxymoron to be famous or be known and care about what people think. That's the dumbest shit in the world. And to let that dictate what you do, that's weakness. And, you know, I'm not driven by insecurity.
Patrick Bet-David
Not sustainable. It's that. And that's why a lot of people go nuts. Cause they're so scared about people that they don't know that aren't participating in the heart. They are.
That's a great point. And they're worried about what these people think, and that's insecurity. I'm not that guy. I've never presented myself as that guy. You're May 3, right?
Damon Dash
Yeah. I don't usually care what people think, other than if I respect exactly what you've done and you've done something that I need to do or I'm trying to do. But other than that, unless you, my family and shit, I don't care what nobody think. I'm not gonna listen to a conspiracy theory if I know the truth, but I'm not gonna tell you what the truth is. In this moment, we in public, okay?
There's a lot of truths that I know that because I'm just not a sucker. And I don't feel like dealing with certain things that I'm not gonna come out publicly. Cause a lot of things I've been saying and exposing years ago, no one said shit up til until just now. So if you remember, I was beefing with Harvey Weinstein, I'm beefing with Liore, I'm beefing with Steve Stout. Most of the people that I'm beefing with, and I'm saying beefing because they're conspiring together, having meetings about how to put me out of business and stop my cash flow, that's actually happening.
Patrick Bet-David
Do you believe in accountability? Of course, that's what's happening. So wouldn't you want to hold people accountable for what they did to Aaliyah? Yeah, so can I. Wait, wait, wait, wait.
Damon Dash
What happened to Aaliyah? That I don't know. What are you talking about? Can I give you what I. What I.
But don't tell me what you heard on TikTok. No, not TikTok. Oh, okay. It's not TikTok. Cause you're smarter than me.
Patrick Bet-David
No, no, it's not TikTok. So I always listen to the man asking me the question. Right. And I know the nature of the question by the intelligence of the man and what their intention is. So just be selective about that question.
Yeah, I mean, listen, and what I respect about you is, dame, you can simply say, don't wanna comment, don't wanna say anything. No problem. We'll move on to the next thing. I'll just share with you. What I'm gonna wanna know is why?
Damon Dash
Right? No problem. And then there'll be accountability for me. I got four kids, you know? And when you see somebody like this, who had an incredible voice, and she was in that one movie with.
What did you hear, though? What did you hear? What did you hear? My question is, why are you saying a conspiracy? No, it's not a conspiracy.
Patrick Bet-David
So what I heard is she's coming up and the whole challenge where she used to be married to R. Kelly, she was 15. She wasn't married 15 years old. Right. And married 15 to a grown ass man.
I know, but. So then why would you still listen to him knowing that they said he married a 15 year old? That was the issue. That you knew it was illegal to be married to a 15 year old and a dude could actually put out a fucking album that says, aj nothing but a. That's right.
Damon Dash
And y'all gonna listen to it and not say a word. That's where people should be. I'm with you. I agree. But what's the conspiracy?
Patrick Bet-David
So then it's not even the conspiracy. So then, you know R. Kelly and her. Then, you know. You don't know the conspiracy, then, Jay?
Damon Dash
You're looking for a conspiracy, then, Jay? No, not at all. Not at all, Rob. Matter of fact, you may want to stop googling. Just stop googling.
Patrick Bet-David
Because he's thinking. I'm looking at what you're putting up. What's the conspiracy that you asked me about? And then later on with you, she starts being with you for a year. You said, don't you want to find out what happened?
Damon Dash
And I want to know what you heard. What I'd want to know. I'm asking you what you heard happen. You got in a plane crash. If Lenny.
Patrick Bet-David
Did Lenny Kravitz offer his plan? Because hype did some bullshit. So why would hype say no? For. Hype's a sucker for that, and I'm never going to forgive him for that.
Damon Dash
So. Period. We know it ain't no conspiracy. I've been told y'all that. So you asking me, did I find out the conspiracy?
If I'm curious? I told you, I already know. So I'm asking you what you know that I don't. Yeah, so if you know something I don't, let me know so I can go deal with it. I don't think.
If you don't, why are we talking about it? Yeah, so I don't. I don't think it's whether I know or you don't know. What's the conspiracy that you're talking about? I don't know.
Patrick Bet-David
It's not even a conspiracy. Is if that was the event. So I guess that was the event. Then what the public knows and what you know is the same thing. So what's the conspiracy?
Damon Dash
Where's the gray area? But where I'm going with that is the frustration with the fact that you know. Oh, that my partner did a fucking album and did a tour with him. That was the frustration. That's the frustration.
Yeah. And what's the frustration is why y'all didn't say nothing about it. That was my point, was how was nobody saying nothing about it? Like, this nigga raping girls. They know that it was a girl.
He said he married a 15 year old. And everybody at that point, until it became common, like, it became the end thing to do. Wasn't nobody disrespecting R. Kelly. Everybody was still going to his shows until it became popular opinion.
People weren't looking the other way. So what I was, was disappointed in every fan that didn't care that this dude was raping a little girl and actually, you know, tried to. You can't sugarcoat it. You cannot marry a 15 year old, period, in America. You understand what I'm saying?
Patrick Bet-David
The fact that. But she died. She died in the plane crash. There ain't no conspiracy there. Yeah, there is no conspiracy.
Damon Dash
The problem was, and again, a lot of things happened behind the scenes to get up to that point, but that's the stuff that people don't know. And I don't feel like talking about all that because it opened up a whole can of worms. Yeah. So, you know, again, and I appreciate you for even sharing what you just shared. I know it's a sensitive topic.
This didn't tell me the conspiracy yet. No, it's not for me. It's more like, okay, for example, I. Was just holding you accountable for your question. You said, accountability.
Said, do you go with the conspiracy that you hear? And I'm saying, which one did you hear that I didn't know about? Like, would I be looking for August. 25 of zero one? I was 21 years old, applying for a job.
Patrick Bet-David
22 years old, applying for a job at Morgan Stanley. Dean Woodrow. My first day was 910. 2001. So at this point, I'm thinking about whether I'm gonna go back into the army and stay in the marketplace, and no one knows what's going on with the story.
We're reading about it, and we know what happened till later on our celebrity. Oh, that. No, we all knew what was going on. He made about you're in the world. No, it was common knowledge that he was married to Aaliyah, or he painted that picture of him being sexually with her at 15.
Damon Dash
Yeah, that was publicized. There wasn't no conspiracy. Everybody knows. The question is, while you're in the army, why didn't you think that was weird? Oh, for sure, I thought it was weird.
So did you still listen to him? Listen to who? R. Kelly at that time? Yeah, I'm sure I did.
Knowing that he was having sex with a 15 year old as a grown man. I mean, are you kidding me? The stuff that we heard with Michael Jackson, everybody's trying to verify and say. Is that even possible? The reason why I'm asking you this is, you know, the DNA and the problems I have to deal with.
Even though a smart man like yourself knows something is wrong, you still gonna do it anyway? You don't know something's wrong. So it's kind of, you do know. Wait a second. Wait, wait, wait, wait.
You're telling me that if your little sister was 15 and a grown man married her or said he married her, you would know something's wrong? There's no question about. And that was not a hidden thing is what I'm telling you. But. But it was not hidden.
Patrick Bet-David
But you're in the world. For example, it's kind of like saying. I'm asking the public, I'm asking you. Did you believe Trump was the. Trump was dealing with Russia.
Did you believe it? Did you think he was. Cause I know you're not, you know, maybe you're not supportive of him. Did you think he was colluding with Russia? It was with the gray areas.
Damon Dash
I don't really give a fuck. Okay, but he's your president. He would be your president. Right? He's your president.
He was like, to me, my president is me. See, I don't depend on public assistance and no disrespect to anybody that does. Right. But whoever is the president, only thing that's gonna be affected with me is taxes. But either way, I'm gonna do what I'm gonna do, but I'll find Donald Trump.
Patrick Bet-David
Did you think he was colluding with Russia? I was curious. Okay. So I think with Donald Trump, there's always a great. I think with Donald Trump, no matter what.
Damon Dash
Yeah, it's a gray area. So were you surprised later on to find out that Hillary Clinton paid for that fake Russia collusion? That I'm not even. That's the politics that I think people use to distract us from paying attention to ourselves. But what I'm, what I'm saying, what I'm saying is I didn't give it that much thought, right.
And I wasn't listening to. Am I? But it affects your taxes, though, right? And taxes. Let me tell you something, right?
Patrick Bet-David
Yeah. Raping a little girl is way diff. There's three things in the street you don't fuck with, no matter what. Snitches, pedophiles, and rapists. I'm with you.
Damon Dash
So I don't give a fuck about politics. If I hear that someone is raping a little girl, I'm no longer supporting them, period. And just cause everyone else isn't looking the other way doesn't mean that you shouldn't. So you, as a common person, that was not to say common, but a person that you said was in the audience. I'm curious to know.
I'm curious to know, how could you know that somebody was raping a little girl just because it was put in a different sentence structure. Yeah. And you still think it's okay until the rest of the world says something. So then I got a question for you. So you said you don't want to comment on Diddy.
Mm hmm. Right. And I said, I want to comment on it. I said there's certain things. Well, wait a minute, though, then it's a double standard, because with Diddy, he's proven that what he's done with young, you know, circulation with young boys and all these other things that come, do you think the market needs to know about that?
But I know him personally. Right. You don't know Paul's puff, so I know him. I don't know r. Kelly personally.
Patrick Bet-David
You do. Right. So why would I jump in conclusion if I don't know the guy personally? What I'm saying is, if you hear a guy rape the 15 year old. Right.
Damon Dash
Are you interviewing him? He's got an open invitation. I wouldn't. I know you wouldn't. That's what we differ.
So I guess what I'm saying is what I was asking, and again, I'm not saying I still fuck with puff at all. I'm not saying I ever did. It's just, it's not for me to knock anyone down while they're down unless I had a personal problem with him. But doesn't mean I'm a fuck with him. It's just I'm not gonna do that.
But just because I know him, but I'm not gonna be a fan, honestly, as it relates to Michael Jackson. I still listen to Michael Jackson. I do as a while. And I went to never Neverland when he wasn't there with Kadana, you know, out of curiosity. Well, I wasn't a kid, you know, he would get knocked out.
You know what I mean? But I wasn't jacking that, though. I wasn't cool with it. So I'm just saying I wasn't a fan of him. How could you be a fan of a person that you know, and the reason I was using you is because what do you think the average person is doing?
They see things that are immoral, they look past it until it's public opinion. And I'm a person that can't look past things until it's public opinion. So. So we'll put it like this. If I had a problem with Puff, and I may or may not, it didn't just start after everyone started having a problem with him.
I was never at none of those parties. You never seen me in no real pictures with a mother in the last 20 years. And I was at his party once at the Hamptons with Aaliyah, Jennifer Lopez and attorney. But that's it. And we left early.
But just cause I don't fuck with someone publicly or privately, it don't mean I'm a dissing publicly. But if you diss me publicly, I'm getting at you. If I know you. So then let me. Let me go.
Patrick Bet-David
Let me go. I was just trying to tell you the temperature, like we're in a world that people look the other way. Because I agree. When you. Again, what I said about Trump, is it all right that his whole crew went to jail?
Damon Dash
And. Just answer that. I think. Is that a good boss? I think no one is being.
I didn't ask you that. I'm asking you, is it all right that his whole crew went to jail? I don't think anybody is being more demonized and carrying an. Don't republican me. I want you to answer my question.
Patrick Bet-David
I'm an independent, a registered independent who liked voting for Clinton, and I voted on. I'm just asking you a question from an independent. If somebody's whole crew went to jail, are they a good boss? Yes or no? I.
It's a yes or no, but I don't know. But I don't know. Yes or no? No, but you're also not given the right answers. No.
You're not part of dame. Respectfully. Respectfully. I respect what you've done to the space you've been a part of. It is very hard to make it to the highest level.
I got a lot of respect for you. It depends on what you consider the highest level. Well, where you have influence and you're able to sit down with bullies. You said you like to bully the bully. You know what's one of the affirmations I teach my kids?
Yeah, we do have to bully the bully. I tell my kids our new record is punch you in your face. That's our anti bully record. Yeah. So but the point is, a lot of the things you talk about with raising boys, family, those things, we may be on the same page in a situation right now, when I'm bringing up Diddy, the only reason I'm bringing up diddy is because you can bring him up.
Yeah. The last two months, every day, something new is coming up about you can't. Not bring him up. Listen, he's the topic of conversation. You can't unless you don't bring him up.
Damon Dash
You're not going to bring him up. Let me ask this other questions. Are you familiar with Jaguar Wright? I'm not friendly with her, but I remember her when we did the unplugged. The MTV unplugged, the heart of the city.
Patrick Bet-David
I think she was doing the she. Just saying background, but that's the only time I remember really interacting. I always remember us being cool. There's now some rumors circulating, and you can shut it down the second I say it. That there was a tie with Jay Z, had some stuff to do with Diddy, and they're kind of both being, you know, aligned and quiet about it.
Damon Dash
They're in a lot of pictures together. So. Yeah. What about it? I don't know.
I haven't been around them in the last 1015 years. Got it. Okay. But you know what's great? I don't know about certain things.
Cause I haven't been around. That's the reason why. That's fair. The reason why I pivoted. Because the gray area thing.
Patrick Bet-David
Yeah. I don't play those games at all. So whatever was going on, I just never even engaged. Indulge or anything. It would not even look the other way.
Damon Dash
Doesn't look at all. I just left. You don't see me in none of them pictures. Has the. Has the fed at all reached out to you for information or.
No, I haven't been around him like that. I'm not around him like that. Just because we black don't mean shit. No, that's not it. But you guys were partners.
Patrick Bet-David
Like that's a partner. Me and Jay at one point. Why would they reach out to me? For what? I don't know if they want to say, hey, is there anything you want to talk to us about, you know, with what happened?
They've never reached out to you? They're reaching out to a lot of weird people right now. I'm not weird. Okay. They're not going to talk to me.
Damon Dash
I'm not weird. All right, so let me. Let me ask this other question. Well, maybe within this context? I hope they don't neither.
They better not come knocking at my door over that bullshit. I ain't got shit to do with none of that. So let me ask. Let me ask this other question. See, I'm out of there.
Patrick Bet-David
For me, class of 96. See, I'm the only one that can still talk. I'm the one that can come outside. I'm not hiding because I ain't got nothing to hide. And that's what I mean.
Damon Dash
I can sleep at night. Well, that's what I'm saying. I think you would be the one that they wouldn't want to talk. They would be worried about you knowing stuff. You gotta remember.
Like, people that are committing crimes only tend to commit crimes around other criminals. I'm not a criminal like that. I'm not gonna. They're not gonna do things on my watch that I'm not. That I'm not gonna be all right.
Because they know I'm gonna say something. So if I see anything that's unsavory or someone tries me, I'm not keeping that a secret. Cause I'm not scared of the recourse. I have no fear of any of those people. That's why I could say no.
Cause there was no fear. Not you can't even look at. You can't even ask me certain questions. Cause you know, you gonna get embarrassed. That's what's gonna happen.
You know what I mean? And if I lose that fight, I'll lose it, but I'm fighting it. And everyone gonna know what I'm fighting about. And I'm not gonna be scared of not being able to get a check from somebody. Cause I'll go on my own, or like you said, or like I said.
Because I'm not worried about what people perceive as a. When I'm worried about being creative and love is my currency, I care about being able to walk in here with my family and be able to work with my family, do books with my family, go to schools, go help close down jails. Like, you know, I think there's way better stuff that I'm doing. And that's what I noticed. What they don't talk about with no one makes a big deal until it's too late is damn.
I'm going into schools three or four times a week and talking to kids and teaching them how to dream, and I'm going into jails trying to get the recidivism rate down. That's the shit that matters. None of this bullshit matters. What's happening with the government, no matter who was president, them kids in Chicago are still sitting in a warehouse with no fucking outdoor space with a fourth grade reading education, and they still foaming at them up cause they're giving them drugs to get out of jail called the cut programs, and they're breathing mold in the air. And we forgot about the kids.
We got bigger issues. I'm not worried about other people's problems. I'm worried about my culture, the people I love and how they're being oppressed, and the cycles that need to stop and the people that are enabling us. And that's who I be going at. Success for me ain't how much money I make is how I move the needle for my culture.
And I'm not talking about black white. I'm talking about creative thinking. I think politics are dumb. If we're both fighting for America, how are we going to fight each other? To fight for one thing.
If I'm trying to save a block and you trying to save my block, I'm not gonna fight you to save the block. We gonna fight together. So instead of worrying about the bullshit, we need to worry about what's going on with these kids, why they can't read. Why do they build a jail cell for every time a kid can't read past the fourth grade? That's the problem is why is all this independent sector, the government, with these big budgets, paying people to do things for the people, but they're not looking at where they're spending the money or how they're spending the money.
A jail, a kid's jail, be a million, 1.2 a bed for a child. And they don't even let him. They don't even let him buy a real toothbrush. That's the problems that I'm dealing with in this moment, is education and teaching my culture. Half the people that give a fuck about Trump or Biden, they probably don't even know how to get a law passed.
They don't know how to lobby, they don't even know how to change things. You understand what I'm saying? Like, to make a law or to make change in America is a unilateral decision. A lot of people got to agree. So that should be what we should be doing, is trying to work on how to stick together instead of what makes us separate as a social class.
It's not about black or white. It's about 99% of the world that got to work for the 1%. And the way they make the 99 fight each other so that we continue to separate and work for the 1%. So either way, all these people that care about the president are paying for a billionaire. But both of them, I'm not jacking none of that pause.
Cause I don't know what's going on. They're all gray areas. I can just control what I see and know. I'm not depending on the government to pay for my hospital bills. I'm not depending on the government to pay for my.
To pay for my. Where I live. I'm not knocking anyone that does. But I'm in the. Unless it's capital gains, the 40% to 50% bracket, and I always owe taxes.
So when you owe $12 million of taxes, how do you pay that back without making 24 million? But they snatch in your money every day. They fucking with your working capital. You know what they don't teach you in school? How to have money, how to keep money.
You know why? My network, I don't know how to keep it. I never went to school. Nobody taught me how to keep money or when to pay taxes. What capital gains is, what's a trust?
Well, you know, no one taught none of that shit. So that's what we do. We talk about people that don't matter. Shit that doesn't affect our personal life. And we're worried about what other people do and what they could do for us when we should be worried about focusing on how to do for ourselves and understanding the money is man made.
I don't give a fuck about money. There's no goal behind it. It's all a Ponzi scheme. I care about love as my currency, how much time I spend with my child, what's my net worth? I'm a dad that I pick my kid up from school and I bring him to school.
I could bring him to work, then I could bring him to a jail, I could bring him to a school, and he gonna watch his daddy be a superhero. That's all that matters to me. So when you look at all these so called moguls, you don't see their family life. You see contrived pictures of something that doesn't even matter on a red carpet, and their children aren't with them. I'm at home with my kids, and then I'm being creative and I'm creating my own.
Like, I direct my own movies. I get them funded or fund them myself. I put them out, distributed myself, and then I put them on my own streaming service. That's amazing, to be able to write a book and sell 60,000 books by myself and you don't know it. That's amazing.
Patrick Bet-David
That's impressive. To have my own sneakers. To have my own. All that shit is amazing to me. I'm not worried about that bubblegum shit.
Damon Dash
That's why I left it. You understand what I mean? But I'm not gonna be grouped up. Never. And the feds don't need to call me.
Cause if they watching or listening. They like. Yo. This motherfucker just living a nice pleasant boring life. The only lawsuit you gonna get from me is I yelled at you.
That's it. You're not gonna get none of that old funny shit. Cause that's not what I do. You're not gonna. There is no gray area with Dame dash.
And the receipts are there. Period. I tape everything. So. Yeah.
Patrick Bet-David
That was great. By the way. Why do you think crime is so high in Chicago? Cause it's such a big state. You think because it's a big state?
Damon Dash
Yeah. It's like 16. See? There's plenty of big states. But why is Chicago so high?
Go google it. The reason why they say the crime rate is relative to how many people there. So. So many people get killed. Cause so many people are in one spot.
You understand what I'm saying? It's just a big spot. That's why it is. But I would say the reason why is because the government enables the kids. They're not doing anything to stop.
And it's happening worldwide. They're getting kids used to going to jail. So you think what happens when I have policies? I just think that if you put a kid in a situation where he has enemies and then take him away to go to jail and come back and put him back in the same situation. He going back to jail.
I think if you don't educate a child and you disenfranchise his family. You're going to jail. Rob. Could you pull up the clip? Could you pull up the clip by ice cube?
Patrick Bet-David
I'm curious. I still have one last question within that context that I go back to. But I want to play this clip for you. Here's Cube with Bill Maher. Okay.
And I kind of want you to hear this and tell me if you agree with him. Go for it. Okay. Let's take. Let's take rap music.
Entertainment. Same people who own the labels own the prisons. True. So literally the same people. Literally the same people who own the labels on private prisons.
Damon Dash
So. So you know.
It seems really kind of suspicious if you want to say that word that it seems obvious. You know. The records that come out are really geared to push people towards that prison industry. But they didn't make you write those lyrics. It's not about making.
It's not about making somebody write the lyrics. It's about being there as guard rails to make sure certain songs make it through and certain songs don't. Certain flavors are exposed on the record. You know, some records are made by committee, meaning record company guys sit around and tell the artist, this is hot, say that, do this, we're gonna have this guy write the lyrics. We're gonna have that.
So the narrative is really kind of, you know, structured and really made into what the record company want the record to be and what the, you know, a lot of artists are frustrated with this kind of music making. You know, a lot of people, you know, feel like they're being controlled by the label. You can stop recording how they do it. What are your thoughts on what he's saying here? It's true.
It's obvious.
You never told me if a boss is a good boss. If his whole crew goes to jail. Not Trump, just in general. If a boss, if his whole crew. Goes to jail, he's around the mob.
If his whole crew goes to jail, is he a good boss? You ever been to jail? Can you answer my question? I don't judge it that way. I'm asking you a question.
Patrick Bet-David
I wouldn't judge it that way. Okay, so you don't judge by the. How good his family roles. Well, let me ask. Let me ask you a different question.
Damon Dash
But I'm asking you a question. How about I ask you a different question? Here's a question for you. I'm asking you, how do you judge a boss if 47 people around them killed? I didn't ask you that.
Oh, it depends. It depends on if it was 4000 people, only 47 got killed. Then I'll say that's not a bad odd. Got it. So then it depends would be the answer.
I asked if his whole crew goes to jail. Yeah. Is he a good boss? I thought you were trying to unify. Now you're trashing a president.
Patrick Bet-David
I mean, what kind of a unifier are you? What happened? Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Choose a position. No, don't.
Damon Dash
You can't tell me what to do. Tell me. Listen, listen. You're not listening. Yeah, I'm not saying that about Trump.
I'm saying that in general. Forget Trump. If you're a boss and your man right there and everyone that's in here goes to jail, but you, are you a good boss? So was suge a good boss? You're not gonna answer my question, huh?
Patrick Bet-David
Because it depends. It's the same answer you gave. I'm not talking about another man. I would tell you it depends. Okay, so it's a.
Damon Dash
It's a. It's. In what way could your whole crew go to jail? And you're a good boss, but in. What way can 47 associates close to you get killed?
What does that have to do with what I'm talking about? I'm asking a question from you, but. You'Re not answering mine. You're not answering mine because I'm giving. You the same answer you're giving.
I didn't give you. Wait, I'm asking you a question. Question. No, I'm asking. All I said was.
I didn't say it depends. I said if a boss goes. If his whole crew goes to jail and he does not. Yeah. Is he a good boss?
I'm not talking about Trump. You are talking about Trump. No, I'm not. You know how many motherfuckers I know whose whole crew went to jail? Yeah, you just.
That's just a shoe fit to wearing. I don't have no beef with this. Let me get. Let me get it clear. Tell me I'm not in here to be Trump bashing or Biden bashing or any of that.
I'm just asking you a question of logic, not about politics. Dame, do you think racism exists? So you're not gonna answer my question? But I gave it to you. I said it depends.
That's not an answer. You know that. Do you think racism exists? Of course it does. It does.
Yeah. I'm racist as fuck.
So funny about that.
Patrick Bet-David
Yeah. You said you're racist yourself. Yeah. Why are you. I'm against bitch ass niggas.
Okay, so. But is that skin color or could that be white, black, asian, anything? White, black, anything. Okay, so let me specify. Do you think racism towards a skin color or nationality exists?
Damon Dash
There's definitely things that I assume. Yeah. Because of color, if you want to call that racism. Yeah. Just because of natural experience.
And so what do you think about. When you see a white guy executive of a major label? What do you think about. Of a major label? Like music label?
Patrick Bet-David
Let's just say. Let me finish. A major. A major black label. If a white guy's running a black label, that's problematic for me.
If a white guy's running a black label. How about a black guy running a white label? It doesn't happen, but it doesn't matter. I think there's no such thing as a white label. That's what's funny, right?
Damon Dash
When you go into music, black music, but there's no white music. They don't have a white music division. It's just a black music division. Why is that. Is that racist?
So I'm asking you, is that. Can you be. I'm not in the space, so I don't know. So be specific. Like, who has a black.
Every. Every music. Do they say black or do they say hip hop? Eminem is white and he sold. I'm not sugar coating shit.
I said. It's called black music. Head of black music. I'm not black and I listen to hip hop. It's not what I.
You're not answering any of my questions, bro. Yeah, I said, is it racist? Invite me on your podcast. I'll answer your question. I will.
Come on. Yeah, come. Come to America new. No, you owe me that. I'm with you.
That's my thing. I'm with you. I'm with you. What I'm saying is there is a black music division in every label. There is.
Patrick Bet-David
Okay? And there isn't a white music division in every label, okay? So I'm asking you, is that racist? But you're not gonna answer. It's gonna depend.
Damon Dash
I know. No, no. I don't know the facts. I gave you the facts. You do know the facts.
Patrick Bet-David
No, no, I don't know. I'm telling you the facts. Yeah. Why are you doing this? I would say a.
Damon Dash
How much? Your network, a hip hop. What's your net worth? I got a couple dollars. So you asked me, and I'm asking you, what's your net worth?
Patrick Bet-David
Put it between three to 503 or 500 million. Since I'm over. Since I'm what? Since some. When you say network, that means you looking at half a billion cash.
Yes. Do you pay taxes on cash? Cash? I would say shy of 200 cash. Oh, yeah.
Damon Dash
Since I'm over, man. Yeah. I'm at an auction. I'm about to sell my interest of reasonable doubt. Rockefeller, Inc.
Patrick Bet-David
Okay. You want to buy it? What's it going for? It's an auction. At auction.
Tell me. Send me an information. I'll look into it. I'm telling you, I. Send it to me.
If it's an auction, I'm talking, and I'm gonna be able to bid. No, you said auction as an auction. How much is it? It says that auction, but. But, you know, I have a judgment.
Damon Dash
So once I have, our dinner would. Be ten times better than this podcast. Because you paying for it. I don't have a problem. There's no question.
Patrick Bet-David
Can I ask you this one selfless question? How do you look at it? Half of being. I would blow all of that shit. How did you save it?
Damon Dash
You save it. Just look at it. What do you look at? I just look at your money. But you ask.
I mean, how often do you look at your bank account? Like, say, once a quarter, I meet with my guy. You meet your guy? Yeah, once a quarter, we meet with the whole team. It's too hard.
Saving money is so hard. When I'm saying saving it, like, when money's sitting, there's so many laws that come with it, and unless you're savvy about how to hold it, you're gonna lose it, man. But you know what? It is so hard. Pause.
Patrick Bet-David
Well, listen. I lost everything at 23, 24, 25. The first time I made money. 23 years old. You're supposed to lose everything.
Totally get it. But I lose everything every year. Let me tell you, when I hit rock bottom at 25, my entire mindset changed. What's rock bottom, Gail? No, I didn't go to jail.
Damon Dash
What was rock bottom? The rock bottom is. What's your version of rock bottom? Lost financially. I'm about to file bankruptcy.
Patrick Bet-David
I don't have a penny to my name. That's not rock bottom. All my credit cards are maxed out. Relationships are gone. That's not right.
Girlfriend, fiance. And I'm about to go back into the military. To me, at 24, 25, that wasn't rock bottom. That was rock bottom for me. You're spoiled.
You're so funny. Let me tell you something. Rock bottom is when you don't have a place to live and you're a drug addict and you don't have your health. No, that's not. And you're not mentally stable.
Financially rock bottom. Financially rock bottom. Everyone's financially rock. Buffett. Yeah.
But what it did. Do you know what I did learn? Kids usually are in college, coming out of college with fucking debt. Right? You know Warren Buffett, obviously.
And you know Charlie Munger. Charlie Munger is his partner that passed away. There's a book he wrote called the Poor Charlie's Almanac. It's a very good book for you to have in the house. Just kind of look through.
They interviewed his kids, and they said, what did Charlie talk about during dinner with you guys? He said, that's the book right there, by the way. He said, dad always talked about people he knew that could have been rock stars that totally ruined their lives because of bad decisions. He taught more how to make bad decisions and avoid them than how to make good decisions. A lot of times when we get money or fame or success, sometimes you don't know how to handle the limelight.
Sometimes you don't know how to handle all the money. Again, how does somebody coming from a social class of 99% understand, day one, how to deal with zero? I'm with you, but I'm saying at 24. Say you're broke. It's hilarious.
Damon Dash
Everyone at 24 is broke right now. Just as Gen Z. No, but what I'm saying. But I was a worker and I was a sales guy. I was a guy that actually worked.
What I'm saying is, I think it was way worse at the time than you thought. In hindsight, now, the worst point of. My life, the worst point of my life was living in Iran, going through a war to ten years old, and we got bombed 167 times. That's real stuff that we have. Where did that happen?
Patrick Bet-David
Iran. Oh, you're from Iran. I'm from Iran, yeah. I was born in 78. We left Iran at 89.
So I lived in Iran for almost eleven years. Yeah. So, but going back. Selfish question. Selfish question.
Dame. Say whatever you want to this answer. Okay. Just want to see what you're going to say. You do know I'm always going to say whatever I want.
I know you are. I know you are. No, I have the premise. Yeah, well, I don't need the permission. You don't need any.
No one's permission. I know. I'm going to tell you selfishly. Selfishly. For.
Damon Dash
That's the question. Okay, dame, come on, historian. Here's selfishly. I'm not a historian. I'm high a lot.
I'm very cloudy.
Patrick Bet-David
Well, at this point, after spending an hour and a half with you, I'm probably high as well, because I've been smelling you for an hour and a half. If I could, I will light up. Yeah, so. But here's, here's my part. Here's a question for you.
Do you know yourself? You don't have to say it. Do you know for a fact yourself, who killed Tupac and who killed Biggie? I've heard you don't know. I don't know.
Okay, got it. I mean, all I know is what I saw on the documentary there, but I don't know if I believe any of that shit. Got it. Got it. So, like, the thing about algorithms is, and what I see, especially with social media, things that pop up on your phone, they just push certain things every day to where it becomes, like, if something.
Damon Dash
If you see something seven times or someone tell you something seven times, you memorize it, no matter what. Like a song. If you hear a song you hate seven times straight because your kid likes it, you're gonna know the song. So there's things that I don't want to know about all day, but because they're putting it put, like, this puff situation every day, all day, conspiracy be about puff, conspiracy about Jay, conspiracy about this one, conspiracy about that one, all day long. I'm just happy that I'm not clear if it's true or not, because I wasn't around those guys for the last ten years, and I made the choice for certain reasons.
So that should tell you enough. What was your reason? I didn't want to get caught up in the gray area. You have to be like, see, when Nancy Reagan did that slogan, just say no. I took it to heart.
Just say no. You have to know how to say no. Be careful with that. She was a Republican. Be very careful about that.
See, what you're doing is trying to divide us. And I never said that I'm for or not for. I didn't say that. All I did was bring. There's things about Joe Biden that I'll bring up that I'll say.
You know what I mean? But in one instance, just because I want someone to validate, and I want to know what their morals are like, so listen to me. If I ask somebody, and this is not a question I ask about Trump, this is. Cause I wanna know the nature of the person.
If you're doing well and the rest of your crew is not. Mm hmm. Are you a good boss now? There are people that will say yes, and then I say, I'm not fucking with them. No, I don't agree with that.
That's what I'm saying. So that's the nature. So, for me, again, I look at how people look at things and know how much business I want to do with them. So if you're a guy that says, yo, if my whole crew goes to jet, means you're going to sell your crew under the bus, that usually means you're a rat, and it usually means that you're getting people to do the work that you should be doing yourself. But I don't want anyone to ever walk away from having an experience with me.
Now, look, even though maybe some of the people that I put on aren't having the best lives, but when Jay's not with me, he's obeying this. Mm hmm. Kanye, when he chooses to be, is a billionaire. Kev Hart, Lee Daniels, Rachel Roy. People don't walk away from me going to jail.
They walk away from me going to a bank. Now, is that a good boss? Now, that's a builder. That's a. That's a.
Patrick Bet-David
That's a builder leader. Is that a good boss? I don't know if I define it as a boss. What do you define a boss? So we might have two definitions.
Leader. A boss isn't a leader. Not necessarily. No, not necessarily to me. I.
Damon Dash
You're not gonna. You're not gonna like that. You said that you have to lead by example when you're the boss. I agree. So how is he not the leader?
Patrick Bet-David
Now, some people, when it comes on. Then that's not a real boss. Listen, if a boss. If a company can't run without the. Boss, we're probably saying the same thing.
If a company can't run, definition for me. If a company can't, maybe the words are different. That's what it is. We're saying the same thing. But if a company can't run without the boss, you're not a good boss.
Well, when I was 28 years old, I'll tell you this. So, Dan, everybody, listen to me. Every. I made a record because I'm also in a rock band called the Black Guns, and I have a record out coming out with. Can he google it or no?
Damon Dash
Yeah, yeah, 365. I wasn't mad. See, you think cause I bring something up. I'm having fun with. I'm having way more fun with you.
I'm having made more fun with you, but I don't want you to have a bunch of republicans on my door. You know what I'm saying? Like, I don't want that. I'm not here for that. You know what I'm saying?
So stop that shit lobbying, dame. I knew once I saw the american flag, I said, oh, it's gonna you. We love America. So you're like one of rather have an iranian, are you? I don't even care about that.
Are you one of those obsessed kind of guys with this guy? Which guy? Trump? No, I love America, but motherfuckers are. I didn't ask you that.
You don't. You know what I noticed? That I can't get a direct question out of people that love that guy. No, not, what do you want to know about that? I didn't ask you your relationship.
I said, are you obsessed with him? Because this is an. I'm obsessed with my family, my dreams, our vision. Let me switch what I see that. We'Re about to get into a big argument.
No, we're not. Damn. Don't do this. It's not an argument. We're doing good.
It's not an argument. It won't be good unless there's an argument. What I see are people obsessed with him living precariously through him from a certain social class. Sure. And it's either they're really broke, without teeth in their mouth, and usually not the brightest and probably never voted until they had to do this.
And then I see people that sometimes have a lot of money that want their taxes cut. And for me, the reason why I can't get involved because there are certain things that I can't look away from. So I don't get involved because, yeah, it might be in my best interest from the tax bracket. I mean, when I have money to be a Republican, but I come from the 99%, but now I'm seeing a lot of the 99% of Republicans, and the whole Republican Party is completely different than it was before. You know, not everyone's wearing a suit at the Republican Party anymore.
A lot of people don't even take showers, you know what I'm saying? No disrespect, but I don't even want to say like that. But sometimes you see them. I want to make sure, you know, I took a shower this morning. You started independent party.
But there's, but it'd be people that be like, no teeth in their mouth that are just obsessed with this man. And then, so I'm not mad at him because he has never really said nothing bad about me. And I was around him and his family, you know, and I ain't going to again, it's like when you know people, you can't just diss them. I can't do that. You know, even if there's a problem with the rest of the public perception, if we were cool at one point, we gonna be cool.
But I just see that people are fanatical about him, that's all. And that is, to me, fanatical. You're making a good argument. Fanatical is problematic to me because whenever there's fanatical, I think, wait, wait. Whenever there's fanatical, there's always some bullshit that comes with it.
It's a gray area. I think the same could be said about Obama. Obama. People are fanatical about him. I was dramatically fanatic.
Patrick Bet-David
Like he was black Jesus for a lot of people. You know, there were. Let me just take you. Let me ask you a question. If there was ever a president of America from Iran, do you know what that would mean for the people of Iran?
Damon Dash
Meaning that are from there to know that someone from Iran could actually be a president, even if he was a bad or good president. For us, as black people, we never saw a black president. It didn't matter if he was a good or bad. Oh, I agree. You're taking it as a negative.
Patrick Bet-David
I'm not saying it as a negative. I'm saying that guy was a hero. I was saying that. I don't. The fanatical part isn't.
Damon Dash
I don't see the fanatical part you're saying, and if you can compare the two, that would be a little suspicious. Oh, that's exactly. I mean, what you got from the. Why nobody wearing hats and doing all this violence and rushing the motherfucking ticket? Well, come on, bro.
He actually turned white people into black people. That shit was funny as hell. He had motherfuckers breaking shit and running into stuff that was a proper riot. Like, not only, and again, I'm not dissing the man, but I'm just looking at the circumstance. Not only did his whole crew.
Patrick Bet-David
What do you have against him? What did he do to you? I don't have anything against him. Why does he trigger you? Why do you get upset about Trump?
Damon Dash
Why do you think I'm upset about Trump? You're trying to make that because this keep coming back. 5 seconds. You brought it up, nigga. You just brought up.
That's to me, Trump is. Tell me how I brought it up. Listen, Trump is white Diddy. Trump is white Diddy. People talk about Trump all day long because not a lot.
Patrick Bet-David
What was linked to Diddy is young boys. There's nothing about that with Trump is beautiful woman. Young boys with. You're not hearing. See, you're not letting me.
Diddy is young boys living with him. Listen to what I'm saying. These are listening stuff for black people. Yeah. Everyone is going to be talking about Diddy for Puff right now.
Damon Dash
For white people. Everyone's going to be talking about Trump. So Trump has the most charges out right now. So people gonna ask about him and talk about him. Did he?
Puff has the most charge. That's what you're saying. Yeah, that's why I'm asking you. I got it. You're asking me about.
So, yeah, but wait, wait. No, it's not different. You asking me 30 questions about Puff and me asking you two questions about Trump. Maybe the question is, what you got against Puff? I don't.
Why you keep asking about him? Because I think he was behind Tupac's murder. So. But why you keep asking me? Why you.
Patrick Bet-David
Because I want. Because if you really want to know. I'm asking me about him because you're in the space. I'm not in the space. Now, that's racist.
Damon Dash
That's racist. Are you kidding me? What year is it now? It was 2025. When Tupac.
That 95 years ago. That's what I'm talking to the most. Qualified guys from that era. I am not the most qualified guy from that era. Come on.
I'm just black in that era. Dame. I'm asking. I'm asking. I'm from the east coast.
I'm not, brother. So you're talking 94 November 2020. I'm talking 2024 Trump. I know what I'm asking. You're talking 2020.
219. 90. 619. 96 plus 95. You guys started freaking Rockefeller.
Patrick Bet-David
96. I've been rolling for 30, 40 years. Do you know who Greg Kating is? No. Greg Kating is the detective who was on the biggie case on the Tupac case.
Damon Dash
I'll get back to that again. Okay. So funny. Is that trending or some shit? I'm telling you.
Patrick Bet-David
Look, listen, if you want to know who, I've interviewed, everybody I can get my hands on with the JFK assassination. I'm curious, guy, but I'm not that guy. I don't know. I understand that. And now I know that you're not the guy.
Damon Dash
I never said I was the guy. I'm heartbroken. You know I can't tell you about puff. No? No.
Patrick Bet-David
Because I was hoping to get more intel. Yo, can you send me? You want to do an investment or something? You got 300 million? Let's talk some business.
Damon Dash
I want to talk. No gossip. I want to get some money. What are we doing? What are we doing?
You let me know since I'm over. I'll flip it. Pause. Send some over. What are we doing?
Patrick Bet-David
Let's see what we got here. Give me a second here. Okay. All right. I got a couple last questions for you before we wrap up.
Let me see what you're going to say about this. See if we can even get an answer here. I'm hoping we can from you. If I ask you a question, I. Ain'T getting question for you.
Damon Dash
I'm gonna ask you one. AI. How do you think AI is gonna affect hip hop? Hip hop? Like, you know, chat gBt.
Patrick Bet-David
People are sitting there. You know, I'm saying. I'm trying to. Yeah, I'm trying to process. I think that chat chibi t as relates to lyrics.
Damon Dash
I don't know that that will help, but, you know, it's cheating. But I think that if artist wants to be a boss and put his own stuff out, chat GBt can organize a lot of business for them, like make decks and, you know, that kind of thing. If you know how to use chat GBT, it can help a boss cut a lot of costs. If you're dependent on people to give you a job, it might take your job. It depends on how you look at it.
There's a yin and a yang, everything. There's a dark and the good of everything. You know what I'm saying? So if dame today is 22 years old, how would you leverage AI today in hip hop? If it's a 22 year old dame.
There would be no assistance, you know what I mean? I'd be writing my own deck notes, even down to like Zoom and AI while you do zoom and all. Just the things that, the little things, a lot of little things. And also organizing my thoughts. So, like, if I have a treatment and I want to, I wouldn't have to hire someone to write a treatment.
I could have it. Write it for. There's a lot of things that if you know what AI does as a boss, you can eliminate costs. So if I look at AI, my perspective is how much cost can I eliminate by using AI? So there's time, instead of paying a lawyer to write a legal letter, I just go to AI, you know what I mean?
If there's some facts I need to know, you have to be smart to know how to use AI. Like, if you're good at movies, you can make scripts with it. It doesn't mean it's writing it for you, it just organizes it for you. If you know how to. If you're in the movie business, you can, instead of hiring a line producer to break a script down, you could just have it break a script down.
So it takes a lot of the little jobs away that cost 1200 here, 1500 here. Just to take notes or just to organize it, just to break things down. It does a lot of that for you. So on the creative side, you don't think it's going to do anything on the creative side or do you think that can have an impact? I think that it's going to, like, there's vinyl, then there's digital, so there's going to be a place for vinyl.
AI is going to be, or digital AI, there's going to be a place for vinyl, which will be real. I don't think you'll ever be able to replace the show with AI because people want to see and see people sweat. You know, anything that's physical, a physical thing like, you know, the music business, the way you make your money is through the show, contrary to what anybody thinks is through your show and your merch. So if, you know, you might have AI design your merch, but, you know, you physically have to still get it made. And, you know, there's these holograms, but, you know, I don't think people are going to pay to see a hologram.
You're going to have to be on stage. So no matter what, fundamentally, in the music business, you have to know how to route a tour, you have to know how to build your brand, you have to make your octopus with your seven legs, and you have to be able to take advantage of the music being a commercial to stimulate maybe eight other things. That's important. Now, again, I'm not sitting with 500 million in a bank, but I think I have more fun than you. I don't know about that 100%.
Patrick Bet-David
I don't know about that 100%. You think you have more fun than me? Come on, bro. I tell it. Damn.
I'm telling y'all. More fun. There's no way you think so. Do you like, are you creative? I am very creative.
Damon Dash
What do you do? Creative? Creatively? Yeah. Let's go video for video.
Movie for movie. No, no, I'm not, I'm not. Wait, wait, wait. I'm not a professional singer. No, but you are.
Patrick Bet-David
You're. I'm a profession, like you said, I'm a brand builder. But I'm saying, on a creative level, what do you do? You said creativity. For creativity.
Damon Dash
For fun. What do you do for creative? Are you kidding me? Like everything we do here, I'll show you afterwards what we do. Can you tell me?
Patrick Bet-David
Yeah. So your name is mister. No direct answer. We run it, but direct questions, but no direct answer. You should be a comedian, Dan.
Damon Dash
Well, you know, I just got your hands. Your father. I know, I remember you saying that. But, you know, I discovered Kevin Hart. Tell me what you mean.
I took him off the stage and put him in his first, directed his first movie. So you don't even know. Paper soldiers. Get on the Google. Come on.
Get it, get it, get it, get it, get, get it, get it. There you go. What do you think about him? I mean, I don't. I'm mad at him.
Cause he won't post my shit on Instagram because I caught him wearing Uggs one day. And I'm funnier than him when we snap. So he's my little man. And I just wish that the guys that I did help without having to. You don't have to do anything, but if it doesn't cost you money, just support would be good.
But, you know, hopefully didn't do no funny shit. There's paper soldiers, there's Kevin Hart. Boom, bang, bang, boom. Respect in his book. Respect.
You didn't even know that look, blew your mind again, I don't know. This, this I didn't add. Kevin Hart perform at one of our events six even five years ago. He tell you about, right? I'm the guy that put him on, discovered him next day put him in a movie.
First two or three. By the way, he's killing it and he's gonna be a billionaire. Well, it's just that when you say you should be a comedian, I hit you with some mega bullshit and say bong. I just discovered the best. You are funny though.
Patrick Bet-David
Dame, you got it. You got a very interesting sense of humor. With a three second delay, I gotta. It takes me 3 seconds to. Let me ask you a question here.
Rap top five greatest all time. Instead of saying you can't say it, let's see. I don't have. Bro, I've been in rap my whole life. So who's your top five?
Damon Dash
My top five rapper ever all time.
You'd be surprised the ones I like. I actually don't think I'll be surprised. Like, like oc. Okay, chub rock.
I think busta Rhymes is off the hook. Oh shit. Yeah, busta rhymes could rap most def. It's too many, that's what I'm saying. It's like a lot of people that I like for different reasons, for different.
As far as rapid goes, you know, biggie. But you know, the thing about it is, you know, biggie only had a couple of years. So I was curious, like, I look at the whole. The whole career, you know what I mean? So like, you know, I'm curious to know what Jimi Hendrix would've looked like past 27, you know what I mean?
30, 40, or Janis Joplin or all these rock stars. So it's easy to be cool when you're young, it's hard. Not for me, but when you're really cool when you're 50, come 53. I've been rolling since I'm like 1918. I've been in the public eye.
I'm still relevant now. Why I haven't had to hit anything in a while. You know what I mean? I've been just focused in my retirement now has been just learning how to love and healing. You know, I have a lot of unrecognized trauma, so, you know, things that I thought were normal or not, like, imagine this life that every, like, you know how you're talking to me?
This shit was normal to me. It was normal to walk away. It was normal to tell people that things weren't right and people not listen. You know what I mean? You know, like I said, I think I'm the only ones that's just not compromised.
There is no funny little tapes on me. There is no conspiracy of people and what they are. Like, that's tough to do. Good for you. It's not.
It's not tough if you're not a scout. And that space, though, if you're thorough. Like, again, you know, I'm a real. Not to say, like, I don't want to say anyone else isn't, but I'm just a guy that was never scared to say no and was never scared to say, yo, you're not going to compromise or. See, what happens is, once somebody got something on you, they control you.
So what they do is they get people in a compromising situation, and now they've shared a crime, and one could always tell on you. Well, that's what they say about Diddy. The fact that he had cameras in every single room and recorded and had so much info on him, they're calling him the Epstein of hip hop industry. That's crazy. It is crazy.
Patrick Bet-David
Yeah. And if it's true, he deserves what he gets. If it's not true, then he doesn't. Deserve it for sure. And it's an auto proving guilty.
Damon Dash
Exactly. But I'm not. But I'm not leaning toward anything. I know. Again, I just know that there was certain energy I stood away from, and, you know, you could tell by the pictures which energy that was good for you.
Patrick Bet-David
Last question. We wrap up, I'm gonna give you five rappers. See if you can rank them. Okay, I don't rank rappers. Just.
Dude, help me. Help me with this. Seeing which one of these guys you think are better. Okay? You got Nas, you got Andre 3000.
You got em, you got Tupac, you got biggie. Biggie and Pac died early. Andre 3000 doesn't do shows, but he could rap. Who else? Nas and then Eminem.
Damon Dash
Nas? What about him? Eminem is white, and he could rap. Really? Well, he could really rap, but he's still white.
And what's. What does that mean, he's still white?
If you were to ask about hip hop, yeah. Out of ten white people that came in here, would any of them be specialists? If they were from that era, probably not. Other minute. Minute.
If you would have asked ten black people from that era, like myself, about hip hop, they would know, because in that moment, hip hop was a black sport created by black people. So it's hard for a black man to say a white man is the best at anything that's supposed to be a black sport. You're not gonna get that from me. Interesting. Yeah.
I'm racist. At least you're consistent. I don't call it racist, but racist is when you judge a man for his color. To me, I don't judge a person cause of the color of their skin. I judge them because of the color of their soul.
I'm racist in that way, you know, but also, I also rock out with the culture when I say I look for the overall, the biggest impact, I don't consider success what most people consider success, and I don't want anyone on here to anti. I'm not saying anything about, again, when I know people, I'm not like, even though I don't agree with a person, it don't mean I'm a dissim in public. If we have an issue, if I disagree with you, out of respect for the relationship, we'll take care of it behind closed doors. So you're asking about questions about people that I might run into and be like, yo, why you was talking about me on this? You know what I mean?
You don't have to worry about that. So I'm not doing that because we've had, like, puppet and I have had those interactions where it's like, yo, we don't. Why are you calling me out on the radio? We have, you know, we don't do that with each other. You know what I'm saying?
So it's just, regardless of what's going on, I just still respect certain morals, because just cause someone ain't right don't mean I'm gonna not be right. And I just consider it chatty, like, girly to talk about people when they're not there unless they've done something to me personally that I need to rectify as it relates to narrative, you know, so there's a narrative about me that there's things that, you know, you know, I'm difficult, blah, blah, blah. And that's coming from people that have conspired against me so that they could get the money that they're trying to get. And, you know, they want to use my business model or they want to get with one of my artists or artists I work with and become their, you know, source of business. Ackerman, you know what I'm saying?
As opposed to me doing it, like, you can't get no money with him if I'm around, you know, I mean, you can't jerk that man. Pause. If I'm around. I'm not gonna let this man do some corny. I'm not talking about Jay.
I'm talking about in general. I'm the guy that's always protected the artist. I'm the guy that protects the culture. I'm the guy that's the least less. I'm the least toxic.
So in business, what's toxic to you? Something that if you buy it, you could get a lawsuit that's toxic. Mm hmm. The only lawsuit you're gonna get out of me is I yelled at somebody. There's no gray areas.
And I've been through it. So I've had lawyers. Cause being accused of something is part of the game and not true. So I've had. I've been accused of sexual assault and went through full trials.
And that person be straight lying. You know, I just went through one straight lying. And they'll put it in a newspaper when they accuse you of it, but they never put you in a newspaper when you innocent. So I won. This girl Monique tried to say that, you know, I.
Because I. Cause I got sued for defamation. But allegedly, I said I caught her stealing. Cause I, you know, I said the words wrong and, you know, she came out and said that, you know, I sexually assaulted her and all this other shit. And it was so far from the truth, not even a gray area.
So I went. I took it to trial and beat it. But it was all over the New York Times, all over the news. When I won, not a word. Same lawyer, paused, named Chris Brown.
See what they've been doing is this hustle, like, I'll say allegedly just so this bastard can't sue me because that's what he always does. So I'll do a movie with somebody or something, and we'll have an agreement. You know, you promote it, we promote it, blah, blah, blah. I go promote it. They take the copyright, they take the asset, they go copyright it behind my back and then say I violated the copyright.
Impeached on a copyright. So as if I hurt the business. It's like a setup. So they've done this, like, three, four times. This dude, Chris Brown.
Paul's allegedly. I'm gonna just keep saying legend no matter what, because they keep suing me. Not that. Not the good clothing brand. Not.
Yeah, should be as good. So you into a clothing brand?
So did you make that suit? You got tailored? No, this is Tom Ford. Wait, wait, wait, wait. You have a couple hundred million in the bank and you buying off the rack?
Patrick Bet-David
No, no. This is Tom Ford's zero zero seven suit. I got on. This is a funnel Richie shirt. So did you buy that out of a store?
Damon Dash
Was it tailored up or what happened? This is tailored up. This is. So. Wait, wait.
You went. Got like a. You went to a thing and they tailored it up for Tom Brown? I'm really curious to know where you're going with this. I'm just curious to know when, again, to suit business.
Patrick Bet-David
Is that what you want? I make suits. I was trained in savile row. I make all my suits in my shirts and everything. Really?
Damon Dash
So I was wondering. I was gonna make sure there's no glue in there. I wonder. I was like, yo, I wanna make sure. So you said that's a Tom Brown or Tom Ford?
Patrick Bet-David
Tom Ford. You know Tom Ford? Yeah. You know Tom Ford. Not like, you know, we've run into each other in fashion.
Damon Dash
And I personally want to say, what's up? I don't like the fact that he said that he could bone any man pose. I didn't like that. So you gotta be careful. When you wear someone's brand, you represent exactly what I agree.
Patrick Bet-David
So what do you not wear at all? I'm not wearing Tom Ford. What else do you not wear? I usually wear my own brand. So, like, my man Willie Esko made this.
Damon Dash
My man barter made these. I wear my own sneakers. These are my own glasses. There's nothing like nothing I won't wear. But if I know a person.
And so what happens when you buy a brand? You're buying what they represent. So no disrespect to being gay or anything. It's not gay. So if a gay man.
And that's what he's projecting. Like, he's been and said, you're like, yo, every man could get boned. This is what he said. You know what I'm saying? I saw it on thing.
So I'm like, I'm not wearing none of that shit. Cause that's the lifestyle that it represents. So he's gay. Tom Ford is gay? Yeah, allegedly.
Patrick Bet-David
You know that allegedly brand. See where you keep going back to? Nah, I just don't get sued. Listen, I mean, it doesn't matter, but. Yeah, Tom, you were that.
You were that gear. Wait, wait. Tom Ford is like proud of it, bro. What are you talking about? Let me see here.
Damon Dash
You better watch what you wear, bro. You want to really know what you're saying? I'm serious. Like, motherfuckers. We were like.
If you look at a brand, it's about sadness and you wear it. I had no idea. I had no idea. I cuz you know Tom Ford, like 3400 million in the bank. You should be doing Lord piano.
Patrick Bet-David
Little what? Laura piano. You don't know what that. No. Let me tell you what I got.
Damon Dash
Let me get you right. You want me to. Let me, let me. How much that suit cost. I'm gonna make you a suit.
Patrick Bet-David
Let me tell you what I like. If you got that king, like if you're gonna do a suit, you gotta do it today. Are you familiar with Stefano Richie? Sounds familiar with it. That's what I like.
Damon Dash
Stefano Richie is who? Stefano Richie, he designed. It's just a straight designer. You. Stefano Richie is the man that's.
Patrick Bet-David
Let me see. Stephano Richie, go to Stefano Richie. I think I. Stefano Richie is what I like purely from Italy. They.
Everything they do is they make. See, I like british suits. You do? They do. Yeah.
Damon Dash
I like a british, like, you know, I'm Savile row. That's why I really got trained in Savile row. But go ahead, what you saying? No, no, just saying this is what I wear. Well, that's not.
But that's Tom Brown. This is Tom. Tom Ford rather. Yeah, but you just taught me something about Tom Ford. This is.
Patrick Bet-David
This is what happens when you. When you hang with dame. Well, I'm very. I break down everything. You know what I mean?
Damon Dash
So I'll be like. If I move, so I wear Ralph Lauren because he kind of, you know, he's a guy's name was Ralph Lipschitz, right? I like the way he built his brand in ties. You got to deal with bloomin deals. And then he expanded his categories, blah, blah, blah.
But he from the Bronx, you know what I mean? Ralph Lipschitz. So I know what he represents. Like, to me, when you wear a brand, you have to understand the DNA of the brand because you put it on your clothes. That's why the name of my brand is CEO.
Patrick Bet-David
Is this why you respect Kanye when it comes down to fashion? Cause you said he took fashion to a whole different level. You said, I'm in it, but he took it to a whole different level. Yeah, I mean, he cracked the french code. The French never fucked with black people before.
Damon Dash
He made. He cracked it. I wasn't impressed with nothing he did till he brought me that Louis Vuitton sneak. And I was like, yo, you got the French to fuck with you? You ever hire somebody from France?
Can't fire him. Well, if you're in France, they think they can't get fired. So, you know, at one time when I was starting, but Rachel, Roy, you know, I crewed up, I went and got, like, the president of Givenchy of France. But when she got to America, she didn't know shit about anything in America, and she just thought I couldn't fire her. Cause you can't fire nobody in France.
Patrick Bet-David
When are you guys leaving? You're leaving right now? Right after this? Yeah. Okay, next time you're in town, we gotta do dinner at the house.
Damon Dash
All right. Next time you're in town. Well, actually, you have to come through now. You owe me an interview. No problem.
So I'm in Winter Haven. I'm 2 hours away. You know, just come on up, take your helicopter. You got a jet. But, Rob, this is going to continue like this for a long time to come.
Patrick Bet-David
I can't. I can't wait to break bread. Really. Break some bread. Talk.
Anyways, this was a blast. Dame, brother, appreciate you for coming out. This was great, folks. Just so you know, Dame is also on Manect. If you got any questions, you can manect with Dame.
That's the QR code right there. You started Manect? Is that your thing? Yeah, Manect is download the app, pay to ask any questions you want. Any questions you want, you can ask him.
On Manek. We talked about a lot of different things. Manek, the one and only dame dash. Did you build that? Or did you, like, you know, the story of it?
No, no, no. Eight years ago, I have a call with a lawyer. Seven minute call. He bills me for 30 minutes. I call him back.
I said, why are you billing me for 30 minutes? He says, because minutes roll up. Yo, lawyers ain't shit. I'm. Yo, I'm going to arbitration with a lawyer.
Damon Dash
What do you do when you tell your lawyer? Like, I tell my lawyer to do something, when I pay him, he don't do it. And then he tried to bill me from shit I didn't ask him to do. And I'm like, I'm not paying for that. And now we in fucking court.
I hate lawyers, bro. I hate them. Well, that's exactly why I created this fucking hate lawyer. So I went to the lawyer and I said, I want to pay you by the minute. He says, no lawyer charges by the minute.
Patrick Bet-David
I said, I'm going to build an app one day where I get to pay people by the minute. So this is. Do you have a minute to connect? Yes. Let's Minecraft.
Damon Dash
It's like Cameo. It's like Cameo. The difference is cameo. You ask people for their birthdays here, you have conversation with them, and every time you ask them any questions, you pay for it. 95% of the time, people get back to you here.
Patrick Bet-David
Less than 5% of the time, people get back to you on Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn. You'll see here. You're gonna follow up with this app. Anyways. How much am I charging?
Damon Dash
How much you charge? You put your price, how much you charge? I'm my text. I respond 100% in audio, I do $100. Then I think I'm $300.
Patrick Bet-David
Then my 15 minutes call is 9000. Wait a second, wait a second. Now, what we need to talk about is after a man has a couple hundred million in the bank. Yeah. And he's still texting motherfuckers.
Damon Dash
That's a different kind of savage. There's only difference, though. You ready for this? Because I don't answer anything else, anywhere else but on the necked. I'm just saying that you're still hustling.
Patrick Bet-David
Oh, there's no question about it, brother. Honestly, the way that. The way that all that work, I'd be like, yeah, this thing might be broke. Yeah. I mean.
Damon Dash
Oh, you got your man. Uh huh. Okay. Yeah. You got a few guys on there they can ask questions with.
I ain't gonna be able to be up there. You all right? Sounds good. Okay, dame. Thank you, gang.
Patrick Bet-David
Take care, everybody. Bye.