Few entrepreneurs and record executives have made the kind of impact on hip-hop as Damon “Dame” Dash. As the co-founder of Roc-A-Fella records along with Jay-Z and Kareem Burke in 1994, Dash also co-founded the Rocawear clothing line in 1999 and helped spark the careers of Kevin Hart, Kayne West, and Cameron, just to name a few. And since his Roc days have concluded, he’s gone on to start another clothing line The CEO and has directed movies Honor UP, Stoned, and Prince of Detroit. In his latest venture, the 52-year-old mogul is putting back on his artist hat and has teamed up with longtime friend and onetime Roc-A-Fella signee Freeway on 365, a hip-hop/rock fusion album.
“I was in this rock band the Black Guns with Tash [Neal],” Dash says during a Zoom interview. “We made this album Therapy and we have other albums we didn’t put out. But I just like the rock ’n’ roll thing. And one of the first records was called ‘Line Em Up,’ and it was by Freeway’s record that he never really put out. I actually white-labeled it. All the records I really loved at Roc-A-Fella, I always envisioned them as rock records and what they would sound like with instruments.”
Dash has long been a fan of fusing rock with hip-hop. In 2009 he oversaw Blakroc, an album that successfully matched the bluesy rock vibes of the Black Keys with top-tier emcees such as Mos Def, Jim Jones, RZA, Ludacris, and others. Unlike other rap-rock albums, Blackroc highlighted hip-hop-based emcees, not rock singers doing double duty. The album peaked at No. 21 U.S. Billboard’s Top R&B/HipHop Albums. A sequel to Blackroc had been planned and partially recorded with the Black Keys and emcees Sean Price, Wiz Khalifa, Curren$y, Mos Def, and Talib Kweli, but it never came to fruition.
“[When] these muthafuckas [The Black Keys] blew up, they didn’t want to tour, we never toured,” Dash says. “I have issues, not too much with [the Black Keys’] Dan Auerbach but with Pat [Carney].” Nonetheless, that album was the inspirational foundation to Dash’s continued interest in creating a rock-rap project. “I was thinking about why I called this group the Black Guns and it’s because a lot of what I learned about rock ’n’ roll came from the Blakroc project with the Black Keys, and also a Guns N’ Roses style,” he adds.
Once Dash teamed up with Freeway in person, they went through a non-stop five-day work stretch at Dash’s Florida studio which resulted in a mountain of content.
“We knocked out 10 records, did three podcasts, one television show, and did the performances,” Dash says. “We shot the music video, we did the album photos, and then Datwon [Thomas] from Vibe magazine flew in and did the interview for the cover.”
Dash has lined up several performance dates at venues across the country, including Greektown’s Club Dream on Friday. He says he’ll be documenting his journey and using it as a tutorial to show aspiring artists how to break a record and how to establish themselves as a group.
“We’re going to these marketplaces, doing smaller venues just for practice,” he says. “Just because you got to, just for respect for the art… My thing is whenever I’m going to make money off entertainment, the entertainment can’t just be something that distracts you. It has to be something that teaches you.”
Detroit hip-hop artists Pariis Noel met and performed in front of Dash in Florida last year. The two found a musical kinship within themselves and Noel has been added to the Detroit show, as well as two other tour stops.
“[Afterwards], we went right to the studio, after the show, and he made a record with Nicky Licky,” Dash says. “And I liked what happened because a lot of people came to the studio after [and] people thought it was going to be a hang out, but we got to work. And people started leaving and it was just us three after about a half hour. But I like the focus that he had, I like the respect he had in that environment and that he already had a record on deck, he was ready.”
“I was the one that told him, ‘I got open verses right now,” adds Noel. “I got material, so let’s cook up,’ and I stayed the whole night.”
Noel plans to perform material from his albums Beautifully Flawed, Energy Never Lies, as well as tracks from an upcoming project with Lorenzo Burez and Eaze. Grammy-nominated artist Ashley Sorrell will also be performing.
“This vibe on this new material is crazy,” Noel says. “It’s titled Good Things Come in 3s. It’s like, imagine J. Cole on a Babyface Ray-type vibe.”
Currently, the Black Guns’ music videos and behind-the-scenes footage are on YouTube, but Dash would prefer you view them on his newly launched America Nu Network, a culturally immersive and all-encompassing media player. Basically, Dash has made his own NBC in the form of an app that can be downloaded via Apple’s App Store or Google Play.
“I made it free for everybody. I learned about the CPMs and the data,” he says, referring to cost per thousand impressions, a term used in online advertising. “So now I can teach all these content creators, or anyone that makes their money digitally, about how they’re getting robbed and what language they should be speaking based on the fact that I’m the chairman of a television network.”
A quick scroll through the NU Network app and you’ll see comedy shows, health and wellness interviews, movies, TV series, and podcasts.
“Having the power to broadcast, and get the CPMs and being able to do what you want when you want with the people you want is a power you can’t understand,” says Dash.
Dash’s America NU Network will also be the final landing spot for his film, Prince of Detroit. The movie chronicles the true story of Tommy Duncan (who plays the role of Tony Fox), a Detroiter who became a millionaire in the healthcare industry. Dash chose to direct and bring the story to the big screen after having a conversation with Duncan about his life story. The movie debuted at Detroit’s Music Hall last June and went to AMC theaters nationwide shortly after.
“It’s a movie about a Black family that has generational wealth and made money in healthcare,” Dash says. “No one has ever seen anything in movies about anything Black dealing anything but us getting our asses whooped or us beating each other up, or us being athletes or us being rappers or entertainers. They never give a visual of anything but us entertaining… There have been so many wealthy Black people in Detroit for years. I wanna showcase us winning.”
Before the performance on Friday, Dash is teaming up with Detroit City Council president Mary Sheffield for a panel discussion on community building and brand development at the Cambria Hotel. The panel is also set to include Darryl Clements from InterCapital Funding, Shannon Steel from Steel Capital LLC, Management LTD, and Dwight Glover form Commerce Financial LTD.
“I’m giving a full clinic on it,” Dash says. “The first part of the day we’re going to be having a conversation or a panel talking about the independent business. Not everyone wants to be independent, sometimes you gotta be. If someone is not going to give you a job, or they’re not going to sign you, or they’re not going to give you a movie deal, it’s not going to get done unless you do it yourself. And only a half of a percent of the world gets that kind of funding. So you have to, whether you like it or not.”
Dash says he has grown very fond of the Motor City over the years and loves the confidence and style Detroiters carry. He says the city is full of a lot of “pretty people” and he enjoys himself every time he gets the opportunity to come here.
“More artsy than people know, to be honest Detroit is one of my favorite towns,” he says. “I was bugging out when I went out there.”
Dash admits he doesn’t have any vivid memories about Detroit from yesteryear and even though he dated the late songstress Aaliyah, they never visited the city together as the Detroit-raised singer and actress was in the prime of her career.
“We didn’t get to travel, she was on the road and I was always on the road,” he says. “A lot of our relationship she spent in Australia. It was like a strong two months, then she went away for like six months, and then it was another two months and then it was a wrap because that thing happened,” Dash says, referring to the tragic plane crash in the Bahamas that claimed Aaliyah’s life in 2001 at just 22.
As Dash continues to embrace and build new projects and endeavors, he has a lot to say to those who want to confine his mogul status to only what he accomplished at Roc-A-Fella.
“One thing that I don’t understand is sometimes I hear people say, ‘Make another Hov,’ like someone else saying that dumb shit,” he says. “I don’t make another rapper, I make another $100 million business. So as soon as Roc-A-Fella was over, a year later I had Rachel Roy doing $100 million. But because some people don’t understand anything but the language of music, they don’t even know I had a whole other vertical that was bigger than Roc-A-Fella the next year … And that’s how I know you can’t trust the world’s narrative, you have to make your own.”
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