Love him or hate him Dame Dash always keeps popping up in the latest hip-hop business news for his new ventures. Once a hustler…always a hustler. Personally, WoooHa feels Dame Dash still has plenty to offer the hip-hop world as we await his Blac Roc project and new film with Mos Def. Unfortunately WoooHa has exclusively learned that Dame’s biggest internet project to date, BlockSavvy.com is now dead.
Posts Tagged ‘Damon Dash’
Mos Def and Dame Dash team up for movie
Dame is back. After a divorce, bankruptcy and just plain being clowned on by past business partners not just named Jay-Z, Dame is back. Aside from his upcoming Blac Roc music project, Mr. Dash will also be stepping back into film producing and already has a film in the works with Mos Def. Rumors have been swirling for awhile about this one but Dame recently confirmed with XXL that he is producing a documentary about an obscure all-black punk band named Death from the 1970s Detroit scene.
Dame says the movie has already started filming and that him and Mos will share production duties and Coodie and Chike, the Chicago-based directing duo known for their work on videos for Kanye West (”Through the Wire”), and Mos (”Ghetto Rock”), will be directing the flick. No word yet on release date or further details at this moment. Aside from this film project Dame also plans to launch a TV station called Creative Control with Coodie and Chike.
PICS: Dame Dash’s new form of transportation
From Maybach to Schwinn. The fall of Damon Dash. All joking aside…that is a nice bike…for fourteen year old. Via: TheYBF¬†& BrokenCool
Damon Dash to release “tell-all” book
Yea who didn’t see this one coming? Celeb who needs some money? Write a book. And that is exactly what Dame is doing. A bunch of sites like Bossip are reporting that Dame has actually already finished writing the book. Here are the details…
Books are like the new album these days. Well, first there is Amil and now I am getting the word that Dame Dash is also writing a book about his life and times. In fact, I heard Dame’s book is already finished. Guess who I am hearing the book was written by none other than Kim Osorio, the former editor-in-chief of The Source magazine. Yeah, baby– Dame’s about to be BACK! Anyway, I heard he is looking for a publisher or distribution for this masterpiece! Good luck!
Would be good to hear some official word on this though. I hope there is some flip cam action of him yelling at his book publisher’s marketing department.

Dame Dash introduces Tiret watches collab with Range Rover

Dame Dash x Tiret. Dame might have lost his wife but he still has himself one nice ride. At the recent Baselworld Watch Expo in Switzerland (Swatch need not apply) Dame unveiled a custom Range Rover Sport designed by his luxury watch company Tiret New York.
The truck was designed to compliment Tiret New York’s signature diamond watches (shown below) so naturally this custom Range has diamonds in it too. Some how I completely forgot Dame was part owner in this company. The sad thing is I bet Jermaine Dupri’s Pop Watches will do better.

Dame Dash’s wife Rachel Roy might save the family
No matter how you put it or sugar coat it, Damon Dash is still in financial trouble. You don’t lose your car and houses and blame it on that Dash’s accountant forgot to pay the bills. But there is a bright light at the end of the tunnel and her name is Rachel.
While many of Dash’s business ventures have failed, Dash and his wife Rachel Roy announced back in June that they had signed a $4 billion joint venture with Jones Apparel Group. Rachel Roy recently showed off her new pre-Fall 2009 fashion line which is inspired by the gangster film Bugsy Malone. This could be the saving grace of the Dash family. (Source)



The failed business ventures of Damon Dash
According to the NY Daily News, Dame is so broke he got his Chevy Tahoe and two condos in Tribeca priced at $7.3MM seized. Basically Dame can’t make payments on anything anymore including his taxes where the government is also after him for over $2MM. Dame was so broke at one point that he could not pay his lawyer he hired…to help him get some money back, so the lawyer sued him for failure of payment. Add it all up and Damon Dash’s financial troubles are in the stratosphere of M.C. Hammer and Scott Storch proportions. That means epic financial failure.
It’s hard to feel sorry for someone like this who at one time sold his stake in Roc-A-Fella for a cool $20MM. That’s a lot of money to burn but somehow he managed to do it. While Jay-Z’s businesses have flourished and promotional deals keep the money flooding in, Dame’s business deals all went sour. Here is a deeper look at where Dame went wrong more from a marketing side as none of Damon’s ventures are currently popular in the marketplace.
Pro Keds: It was Dame’s dream to turn Pro Keds into a sneaker powerhouse and from their, launch into other fashion ventures. But it never happened. Dash was not able to turn the company around was forced to sell the company back to parent owner Stride Rite after it was apparent he was in financial turmoil. Loses were not disclosed but word is he sold the company back at a huge loss. Dash tried to implement a “limited edition” and exclusive line of the shoes and while some of the designs were original and fresh, the branding of Pro-Keds as old and “your father’s shoes” was too strong for him to overcome.

Dash Films: While Roc-A-Fella Films was never a huge success, it had street credibility. When Dash left, he created Dash Films but it too never got off the ground and tried to be too much. It even released an indie movie with Kevin Bacon called The Woodsman which made $1.5MM in the U.S. and cost $3MM to make. Aside from that and a couple of Direct-To-DVDs and short lived reality shows like “Ultimate Hustler” Dash was never able to leverage his connections and in fact really never connected with Hollywood.
BlockSavvy.com: This was supposed to be Dash’s saving grace. A social networking website where users could create their own “blocks” to hang out at develop social online relationships with music, movies, fashion, politics all with an urban flair. Unfortunatley no one wanted to move into this block. As of today, BlockSavvy.com is falling faster than the S&P 500. This graph explains it all. And no traffic = no ads = no revenue.

Armadale Vodka: Back in 2006 Jay-Z and Dash both put their money together to invest in Scottish Vodka company Armadale with the goal of bringing it into the U.S. and using their connections in the music industry to turn the liquor into the next Hennessey, Couvasier…heck even Ciroc. But none of that happened. The Armadale website was shut down last year, distribution is limited to online stores and Armadale is about as cool to drink in the clubs as Tiger Woods Gatorade.

So there you have it. Damon has also invested in everything from boxers, night clubs, watch companies but nothing has panned out for him. Even his music label, which everyone expected to at least make some money has been struggling to lift off. His saving grace? It might be all on his wife Rachel Roy who has a fashion line with some potential…and of course Dame is invested in it.

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