Damn. Dame Dash seems to have taken something of a fall. I won't revel in another man's misery. But the split between me and hip-hop has its orgins in Big Pimpin amd the Benjamins. Unlike most heads I wasn't bothered by the unvarnished lust for material things and money--I was bothered by the utter lack of respect for money. This is an old story stretching back to Frankie Lymon (Larenz Tate murdered that role, btw) and extending up though gold ropes and "make money, make money money money." But it's almost like when you don't come up around money, but live in a society that worships it, it lessens the chance that you'll understand it. What would I have done at 20 if someone had dropped a half-mil in my lap, and had no one around to really counsel me?
I remember when every rapper in the world was getting cameos from Donald Trump. It rubbed me the wrong way then, but years later, once I read up on Trump, I remember thinking, "This is who these guys idolize? This is their notion of wealth?" Anyway, it ain't a black thing, a hip-hop thing, or even poor people thing. Coming up around money doesn't mean rich kids don't burn their way through it. I think it's just a people thing.
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"But it's almost like when you don't come up around money, but live in a society that worships it, it lessens the chance that you'll understand it." It's not almost like, it absolutely is. This kind of similar to the way I felt about Hip Hop and misogyny. Growing up I loved the way rappers talked about female bodies, particularly how they desired black female bodies. Between Teen People, YM and Seventeen, there weren't a lot of mass market images telling me that I was attractive. Of course, that got way outta hand too. 
"Anyway, it ain't a black thing, a hip-hop thing, or even poor people thing. Coming up around money doesn't mean rich kids don't burn their way through it. I think it's just a people thing." Sooooo true. When I saw that, I was thinking, wow, Dame has no excuse. We've seen too many folks of all stripes lose it all for dumb reasons. He's right in the thick of wealthy NYC, and there has to be at least one accountant in Manhattan who could've kept him above board. I know he had some beef with Jay, but he could have taken some financial cues. Here's hoping Rachel can sell enough of her overpriced (but very cute!) clothes.
"Anyway, it ain't a black thing, a hip-hop thing, or even poor people thing. Coming up around money doesn't mean rich kids don't burn their way through it. I think it's just a people thing." Agreed. Dame is like all the banks that are failing now. They thought the good times would last forever.
I knew when him and Jay split that the ride down the mountain was gonna be bumpy.
You don't need two $10mm homes inside of the island of Manhattan. That is just idiotic. Manhattan is a very small place. I read somewhere that his mortgage payments were going upwards of $100k a month. Crazy. You can get a big loft for maybe $mm, this was just insane what he was doing. Anyone with an uptown place and a downtown place in a city that I have walked top to bottom (and I am doughy, out of shape and lazy), should be beaten with his own clownshoe.
AliHajiSheik: That's too funny...and too true. Seeing the "big pimpin'" reference reminds me why I am not a fan of any of those fools and why I stopped listening to this noise years ago. Just a lot of misogynistic noise. It may be harsh, but I feel as sorry for Dash as I do for the Big 3 Auto Execs who couldn't see fit to jetpool. I know this won't happen, but I'd love all three of 'em to lose their shirts. That's better than jail. One represented a cultural cancer; the other, an economic one. Good riddance.
Inner city schools fail their kids every day on this subject. Welfare mentality is real and its learned behavior. Budgeting and money managment should be taught starting in middle school. The 1st and 15th were like Christmas in my hood every month growing up and to this day I usually do something or buy something stupid that I didn't need to on pay day just to satisfy that ingrained need to associate money spending with happiness and security. I was never a fan of Dash and not really a fan of JayZ's bubblegum pop music either but this is a sad story.
I wouldn't go so far as to say its a people thing. I think America's relationship with money is unique and problematic. We practice capitalism in a predatory way, however I think we are more aware of it now as a society in light of the collapse of our economy. Not to say that people are inherently egalitarian - never that.
He made 20M off that Roc-A-Fella sale 2 years ago. I feel no sympathy for someone that can fritter away 20 Million Dollars in 2 years.
Damon Dash seemed like a complete asshole in every interview I ever saw with him. Can't really feel any sympathy on this one...
Dash *is* an asshole. Jay saw it coming, that's why he went solo.
Wow. Color me naive. My friends and I used to LOVE that song when we went out in college, but I have never heard the unedited version. I feel really embarrased because it is quite terrible, and disrespectful to women. The irony of that song/video is a) the sheer excess boggles the mind--but there is no way that at least one of those dudes (ahem, Dame Dash) can afford that lifestyle right now and b) Jay-Z has grown a lot as an artist and as a man. He isn't perfect, but he has stepped his game up, AND, his line about never giving his heart to a woman went out the window with his wedding in April. Yes, irony indeed. The high school drop out, former drug dealer, is supremely wealthy with the semblance of a stable home life by making grown up decisions.
Didn't they learn anything from Sir Mix-a-lot? I remember when he came on a Seattle radio show called Rewind and they asked him what his advice to the winner of American Idol would be. His reply was "Pay your taxes, 'cause man, those guys will come and get you." Funny thing, my dad actually did some of the accounting on his bankruptcy.
He's right in the thick of wealthy NYC, and there has to be at least one accountant in Manhattan who could've kept him above board. Yeah, but, you know, I've often wondered about that. If you're suddenly rich - like, more money than you've basically ever dreamed - aren't people coming out of the woodwork to sup at your trough? I mean, where do you find an accountant you can trust under those conditions, instead of someone who says he's an accountant but really just wants to rip you off? I mean this isn't about "budgeting." This is about the fact that, basically, there's only two ways to learn how to manage money on that kind of scale - have earned an MBA and then earned the money the hard, slow way; or have been born with it. The kind of skills you learn managing a normal income - or a poverty-line income - apparently just don't apply.
Dash always was obnoxious. This was the only possible end for the promoters of the bling era.
I mean, where do you find an accountant you can trust under those conditions, instead of someone who says he's an accountant but really just wants to rip you off? They are pretty easy to find. For a big accounting firm, that 20 million isn't that big of a deal. He could have had his lawyer refer him to one.There are lots of accountaing firms that deal with WEALTHY folks, that 20 is small potatoes for them. No excuse.
I guess Bubble Gum Scented PRO-Keds don't throw off paper like they used to. Dash kills me with his recklessness but he's just a sign of the times. No different than any of these other High Finance fools moping around The City right now, trying to decide what's going first: the wife's Porsche Cayenne or 5 karats for the mistress' ears. If he'd listened to BIG he would have known that once the phone bill got up around two G's flat he would have had no need to worry if he'd had an accountant to handle that. Money never sleeps Dame.
Damn...this one gets under my skin so deep that even after some sleep I'm coming back for more...possibly because my wife teaches in a POS school in the South Bronx where a lot of her kids show up truly and deeply mind fucked by the ripe old age of 12. This is going to border on a thread jack. Anyone looking for a sign of where Dame went wrong might want to check out this profile The revelations beyond the $400K Maybach, 1,300 pairs of sneakers, single use socks, drawers and t's, and requisite butler who makes sure Dame's cuff links are on point include: Dash's stated worth in '05: And while he grew up in Spanish Harlem which was and is poor as hell he wasn't dragging ass to his local District 4 school (which would have been and remains one of the better public school options in NYC...google it and learn because Michelle Rhee sure has and I'll give you one guess which future Ayman Zawahri Thumping White House Negro has her number on the quick fast): "Dash was in and out of a number of public and, because he was a whiz on standardized tests, private schools (via scholarships from the Boys Club). He went to the Dwight School*; Isaac Newton*; Manhattan Center*; South Kent, a boarding school in Connecticut with a reputation as a magnet school for kids with disciplinary problems (and where he cast himself as an athlete, lettering in football, basketball, and even lacrosse); and, finally, Westside High*." *These are no joke progressive NYC schools with deep community backing...Dash met himself some Indian Chiefs at these places and at least a future accountant or two...he did time in four of the better NYC joints not named Dalton, Ethical Culture, Regis or Ryker's so the whole "lack of exposure to legit future money managers" angle doesn't fly here. Here's a couple of distinguished Dwight grads (again, Dwight being just one of the FIVE elite schools DD attended): Julius Sachs (later groom of Rosa Goldman...he and his in-laws put their money to work), Mayor La Guardia, Robert Moses, Herbert Lehman (co-founder of Barclay's newest asset), Truman Capote, and (BIG UPS) Atlantic's own Jonah Goldberg which is really all you need to know. Dash was vetted for and sponsored by the Boys Club who roll impossibly deep and I guarantee wormed themselves into his jv life, kept it from turning jd, and made him swing by the Clubhouse a couple times a week. The Right Coast Syndicate TRULY is interested in where you went to middle school and Dash got repeated early access to and shots at influence and a first class education; much more than his somehow still solvent and in one case extremely well wed fella' Roca'fellas Jay, Cam'Ron and Kanye had; much more than the 500K+ kids currently residing in Spanish Harlem, South Bronx, and Brooklyn have today (The Wu can comment on Shaolin Island...I'm not touching that one). Neither lacking ambition, eye for talent nor foresight, in 1996 at all of 25 Dash produced J's Reasonable Doubt and: "When he and Jay-Z were offered distribution deals with big record companies, Dash held out for a co-ownership with Def Jam." T-NC you are right on that it's a people thing in this case, plain and simple: “It’s all about finding ways to make money off an upscale urban product,” Dash says. “That’s what I do. I’m a businessman. Period.” Dash isn't ruthless with his work though and he strives to keep his spirits up in trying times. In fact "he said that these spirits are exactly what gets him through the day: "I go to board meetings high," he explained." It comes as welcome news that DD's got a sense of perspective and humility because at the time of the article: "his payroll includes a photographer, Monique, who is at his side to capture his every move—“Damon says this is the most important year of his life, and he doesn’t want the world to miss out on it,” Monique says. She is at Damon’s office to shoot the scene when his barber arrives and sets about shaving his head. This happens every other day." T-NC while you are speaking truth that it's not right to revel in another man's fall, Dash is just an absolute disaster and in my opinion should be served up as Exhibit B (feeling charitable) right behind all my busted hedge fund brethern (feeling scornful...FOOLS!) as an example of how NOT to capitalize on opportunity, talent and providence. Toss the rich vs. wealthy argument in this case...his parents were WORKERS and Dash has spent his life surrounded by winners and achievement. I'm tempted to blame it all on the gods because you knew it was going to be bad the minute he messed with Pistol Pete's kick and slapped a watermelon scratch n' sniff sole on the reissue, but let's be honest: Damon Dash admits he loves getting high while he tries to manage his business. Damon Dash proclaims he was pretty much always in it for the money which is fine but suggests he might have been missing some perspective (which again, his initially more destitute partners somehow have in spades). Damon Dash has been a MC Tyson-esque spendthrift. Damon Dash had access to a superior education and support network (which should have at least taught him to save a couple $M but FOR SURE introduced him to a couple people who know how to move money around the Caymans). Damon Dash partnered with the East Coast's answer to Dre...a man so talented that he answers to an alias for God...the same man who wrote Damon Dash a $20M check less than three years ago. So even with all of those advantages, Dash blew it. Now, busted and broke, he finds himself in a position that countless men have trod before: hoping his boo will both save and not leave his ass. Nicely done Dash. It just might have all been a dream.
(BIG UPS) Atlantic's own Jonah Goldberg For a second I'm all 'the HELL?' (I've made this mistake before too.) Great post!
Yanno... this is unfortunate. Dame may well be an asshole, I've no idea. But, when you don't know how to manage money -- no matter how much it is -- it's bound to end badly. All of the venom at him 'squandering' his fortune is a bit much since most of us make inexcusably bad choices with our own money. We're just not in the national spotlight.
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Reminds me of the Chris Rock bit on "rich vs. wealthy" - Shaq is rich, the (white) guy who signs his check is wealthy. Good commentary on how certain demographic of folks (I agree, its not a racial thing, more a low-income thing) conceptualize wealth in a very limited way.
Posted by Craig | November 20, 2008 5:03 PM