Roc-A-Fella Records founder Dame Dash has known Jay Z for more than 20 years, so even though they have not been particularly close recently and are no longer business partners, Dash’s perspective on Jay still has some value. The former mogul was recently asked about the now-infamous video footage of Jay being punched by his sister-in-law Solange in an elevator at the Standard Hotel earlier this month. The incident became the subject of worldwide speculation and inquiries about Jay Z, Beyoncé, Solange and the state of their family.
But to Dame, the incident was just comedy.
“I was laughing,” he said during an interview with Hip Hop Motivation. “That s— was funny. I mean, I wouldn’t have handled it like that. But I just thought it was funny cause Jay is the kind of guy that you don’t see him moving like that that much. And when he does move — if it’s not, like, that cool-looking — then it’s going to be kicks. And also, I feel like nobody teases Jay except me … I don’t think he should be mad about it. I think he should just be laughing. That s— was funny. Everybody fights.”
Dash also addressed the fact that Jay Z has to be very image-conscious, and compared the media scrutiny on Jay and Solange’s fight to the kind of scrutiny Dash endured as his music empire crumbled.
“Jay has to worry about perception because corporately people pay him,” Dame said. “So, he really has to play that game. So, I thought what was ironic about it was people got to see how he plays s— off. And how something crazy can happen and then four seconds later when it’s cameras on and they act like nothing’s going on. I thought that was interesting. But then it’s just kind of exposing it. Like how do you trust anything moving forward? I think if he cares, then he’s probably embarrassed. If he doesn’t care, he should be enjoying it. Me? I wouldn’t care. And I know how it feels to get bombed on in the newspaper. Them n—as bombed on me for five years straight. I just laughed at it.”
