Damon Dash Sells Roc-A-Fella Movie Rights for $550,000 at Bankruptcy Auction

A film company has acquired broad rights to Damon Dash’s life story in a $550,000 bankruptcy deal.

Dash’s life rights were auctioned off earlier this month, according to a Wednesday (Oct. 21) court filing in the Roc-A-Fella co-founder’s $25 million bankruptcy case. The profits will go toward paying off Dash’s debts, including millions of dollars in unpaid taxes and a defamation judgment.

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Production company Everlasting Films won the auction with a bid of $550,000, beating out one other bidder named Doug Peters. Everlasting Films now owns the exclusive rights to commercialize Dash’s life story, together with his name, voice, image and likeness rights. The deal also includes 100 hours of Dash’s archival material dating back to 1990 and the rights to a Roc-A-Fella movie project he’s been developing.

The deal does not include any ownership shares in Roc-A-Fella, which Dash founded alongside Jay-Z and Kareem “Biggs” Burke in 1994. Dash’s one-third stake in the label, including royalties from Jay-Z’s iconic debut album Reasonable Doubt, was previously auctioned off in 2024 to reduce his tax debts.  

Attorneys for Dash and Everlasting Films did not immediately return requests for comment about the sale on Thursday (Oct. 22).

Dash declared bankruptcy last September, citing debts that far outweighed his assets. Beyond the life rights, Dash said he had just $100 and cash on hand and some jewelry, clothes and guns worth a total of $4,250.

On the debt side, Dash’s bankruptcy petition said he owed a total of $25.3 million to creditors. That included $19 million outstanding to state tax authorities in New York, New Jersey and California, as well as $600,000 in child support payments and nearly $5 million to movie producer Josh Webber for copyright infringement and defamation.

Dash’s case is a Chapter 7 bankruptcy, in which a court-appointed trustee methodically sells off a debtor’s assets and uses the profits to pay off creditors. At the end of this process, the remaining debts can be erased to give the person a “fresh start.”