Dame Dash still won’t let his long-shelved Roc-A-Fella documentary come out unless Jay-Z finally gets involved.
Dame Dash has been watching hundreds of hours of rare Roc-A-Fella footage over the years, and a filmmaker has just revealed why no one has seen it. Director Adam Balalov said he was ready when Dash asked him to direct the official documentary, but there was a condition holding him back.
Lough shared the story in a post responding to a newsletter from writer Andre Gee about Dash’s continued filming of Jay-Z.
“Dam asked me to direct the official Rocafella documentary. He has hundreds of hours of incredible footage from the era,” Lowe wrote. “I said I would only do it if I also understood Jay-Z’s point of view. Dame said no.”
In 1994, Dash co-founded Roc-A-Fella Records with Jay-Z and Kareem “Biggs” Burke, and “Reasonable Doubt” became the label’s breakthrough classic two years later. Def Jam acquired the remaining half of the label in 2004, ending its operations as an independent company.
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Jay-Z soon became president of Def Jam, a promotion that effectively pushed Dash out of the empire he helped build.
The fallout sparked years of litigation, starting with Dash’s failed attempt in 2021 to auction shares of Jay-Z’s Reasonable Doubt as an NFT. A judge later ordered U.S. Marshals to seize and sell Dash’s Roc-A-Fella stock to satisfy an $823,000 judgment against him.
Between money, egos and years of public footage, a reconciliation between them looks further away than ever.
Dash has been self-critical in 2024, accusing Jay-Z of trying to “devalue” his Roc-A-Fella stock ahead of a court-ordered sale. He also compared Jay-Z to Batman villain The Penguin and claimed his old partner sabotaged Tommy Hilfiger’s $40 million deal.
Those unanswered shots finally caught up with Dash in May when Jay-Z fired back with a Roots Picnic freestyle.
Jay-Z raps about teeth “rolling” out of someone’s mouth, a direct nod to Dash’s viral video of teeth popping out of his mouth during a livestream. Dash fired back at The Art of Conversation, calling the improv “awful” and “terrible” and encouraging Jay-Z to break the real diss record.
Dash slammed Jay-Z’s three-night residency at Yankee Stadium this month, calling Beyoncé’s hair introduction “contrived” and the merchandise-filled stage show going too far. He also questioned why old rivals like Fat Joe and Jadakiss were on stage while Jay-Z’s true friends were not.
Dash said he would rather see something new than an overly polished nostalgic drama.
Law is also no stranger to hip-hop documentaries, having directed HBO’s Emmy-nominated “Telemarketers” and the acclaimed Lil Wayne film “Carter.”
But he won’t be involved in anything Dash is brewing.
