Dame Dash says Jay-Z wanted to get rid of Roc-A-Fella co-founder Kareem "Biggs" Burke because of voting power

Record executive Dame Dash addressed the infamous Roc-A-Fella Records split during a recent interview, claiming Jay-Z wanted to get rid of co-founder Kareem "Biggs" Burke due to voting power. For the unversed, Roc-A-Fella Records was a record label co-founded by Jay-Z, Dame Dash, and Burke in 1994. The three founders later parted ways in 2004 due to disagreements.

Dame Dash rehashed the split in a conversation with The Art of Dialogue, uploaded to YouTube on December 23, 2024. He claimed Jay-Z wanted to "get rid of" Burke to secure voting power since Burke would always side with him (Dash) when deciding which artists to sign.

Dash cited a list of artists, including Kanye West, whom he claimed Jay-Z wasn't particularly keen on signing. When the interviewer asked him if Hov didn't do anything to stop him from signing those artists to Roc-A-Fella, Dash replied that he always won through majority votes because he had Burke supporting him.

"He [Jay-Z] wasn't down with a lot of s**t. But at the time, because I had Biggs, it didn't matter what he thought because it would always be two to one and Biggs would always rock with me. It's not like that now. And now that I think about it, that's why he wanted to get rid of Biggs. I can't believe I never thought about that. It was because of the voting power. In all these years I never thought about that," Dame Dash said.

In November 2024, Dame Dash was asked to sell his 33.3% share of Roc-A-Fella to settle his unpaid taxes with the New York government.

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Dame Dash explained the reasons for his falling out with Jay-Z

Once business partners, Dame Dash and Jay-Z had a bitter falling out that led to them parting ways after the latter renewed the record label's contract with Def Jam for $20 million in 2004 and was named president and CEO. However, in his latest interview with The Art of Dialogue, Dash explained the other reason for his fallout with the rapper.

Dash claimed he decided to end his relationship with Hov after the latter expressed his interest in working with R Kelly, who is currently incarcerated for child s*x abuse. Dash said that Jay-Z's insistence on working with Kelly left him appalled due to R Kelly's marriage to his ex-girlfriend Aaliyah when she was 15.

“The fact that Jay was messing with him just blew my mind. I never understood why he wanted to work with that guy so badly," Dash said.

R Kelly and Aaliyah were married in 1994 and split up in 1995. The singer died in an airplane accident just six years later in 2001. Dash and Aaliyah met in 2000 and were together till the singer's death.

In the interview, Dash said he had asked Hov why he wanted to work with R Kelly despite the allegations he faced. He added that that was the tipping point for him to leave Roc-A-Fella, saying he wanted "no part of that mess."

"Everybody knew R. Kelly married Aaliyah when she was 15. It wasn’t a secret. So yeah, we had that conversation. I asked him straight up, ‘How are you gonna do a project with a guy who r*ped my girl?’ That alone was enough for me. It was the final straw," he said.

"That was a burned bridge. I left Roc-A-Fella. Nobody pushed me out—I walked away. I said, ‘Forget the money, forget everything. I’m done.’ I wanted no part of that mess. I saw where it was heading.”

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Dame Dash's interview came weeks after Jay-Z faced serious allegations of s*xual abuse of a minor in connection with Diddy's ongoing s*x assault lawsuits. In the lawsuit filed in November 2024, the alleged victim claimed she was 13 when Jay-Z and Diddy r*ped her during a 2000 MTV VMA afterparty.

The accuser's retelling of events was scrutinized for discrepancies in her story; however, she maintains her accusations. In a recent interview with NBC, she added that she "made some mistakes" but wanted to advocate for herself, claiming the abuse occurred.

Meanwhile, Hov strongly denied the allegations, saying he looked forward to proving his innocence.