“My history with Kanye is I didn’t respect him as a rapper because I was around the greatest rappers….but he has courage.”
—Dame Dash
Business Never Personal was the ironic title of the pre-breakup album by EPMD. Amidst rumours that PMD was withholding monies and Erick paid goons to rob Parrish Smith’s home, the crew broke up indefinitely. Fortunately for fans that indefinitely turned out to only be 3 years. This is just one of many hip-hop breakups that we’ve all had to collective go through – think Fugees, Geto Boys, etc.
However, no break-up can truely top the Roc-A-Fella team. No need to fully elaborate on the widely public circumstances, but like many divorces, the children were the casualties. It was this splitting of allegiances that ended up causing further rifts and, eventually, ended an era. Most notably Kanye West, whom Dame is credited as first signing, followed Jay. Outspoken Dame was understandably upset.
It wasn’t until recently that the duo reunited. Dame was on hand to present Kanye with an award at the Hip-Hop Honours, and if a picture is worth a thousand words, then Dame’s smile as he took a selfie with Yeezus and his daughter could write a book. As Dame made clear – his issues were more than business, this was emotional. It was obvious this reunion meant a lot to him.
Today we received more news on Dame and Kanye – they are about to launch a new business venture. They are starting a film company, which is fitting considering Dame’s experience and Kanye’s apparent interest in short films. It’s an exciting new venture, and I’m curious to see how it rolls out.
Here is what Dame had to say about the situation:
“The thing we don’t do historically and culturally is stick together but we are stopping that now if we stick together we don’t need any middle men from others cultures… We know we can do it on our own…but we are so powerful together…pause and we have our own money..we already made history in music so we can do that for fun so we’re gonna do movies… This is like when Spielberg and Geffen got together and did dreamworks…it’s time…me and kanye making movies and my brother Qtip was there to bless the deal.”
Congratulations to these two brothers on their new endeavour – and for putting the pettiness aside. This is a win for hip-hop.
