The economy is hitting everyone’s pockets hard, especially former Hip Hop mogul and Roc-A-Fella Records co-founder, Dame Dash.
With recent news that his wife of four years, Rachel Roy, was filling for divorce over “non-monetary relief”, Dash’s financial situation is looking bleak. Dash and Roy hooked up to start Roy’s own clothing line after they met while Roy was interning at Rocawear. But Dame recently told Billboard Magazine that with all the competition in the fashion industry he could not keep afloat and was forced to drop his investments.
“The reason I sold half of [Rachel Roy] was because it was costing a lot to build as a brand and I wanted to get with some partners who could take some of that pressure off me. Fashion is so hard and the retail game right now is in such a bad place.”
Dame, whose fortune was once upwards of 50 million dollars, now faces a sea of debt stemming from bad business deals and legal troubles.
Dash, sold his stake in Rocawear to Jay-Z [click to read] for $20 million in 2005 and now owes $2 million in backed state taxes. A bank has started foreclosure proceedings on his two Tribeca condos and even his tricked out Chevrolet Tahoe SUV was repossessed last year when he couldn’t make the $714.99 monthly payment.
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Talking from business angle, Dash relayed how he believes market exploitation played a large role in his empire’s downfall.
“If you don’t have anything and you have someone that’s going to put $1 million or $2 million into building your brand, then they deserve a piece of it…At this time you have to generate a lot of things and make it within an affordable price point and you have to be better than everybody. Everything just seems oversaturated and everyone is trying to make a buck.”
Developing a brand is where Dash excels; creating the image for Roy’s clothing line as well as Rocawear. He explained how he built Harlem native Jim Jones’ career and gave him his own brand through hard work and persistence.
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“My first approach was the music business and getting with Jim Jones…At first I wanted to help him because I’ve known him since he was young and me listening to the album and thinking it was really good. So I spent the last six months doing research, trying to figure out how to use all my resources to blow this out,” he said.
Now with Jones just releasing his fourth solo album Pray IV Reign [click to read] and the bad business deals behind him Dame appears optimistic about his return to the music industry and getting his financial situation back on the right track.
“When I come back, I’m gonna change the economy as well,” he said at a recent magazine show in New York.
