Damon Dash is disputing a claim made by Jay-Z’s attorney that the hip-hop mogul is not friends with Diddy.
Dash, who co-founded Roc-A-Fella Records with Jay-Z and Kareem “Biggs” Burke in 1994, addressed attorney Alex Spiro’s recent remarks about the nature of his client’s relationship with the Bad Boy Records founder.
“I don’t think I would have said that he didn’t know Puff at all, or wasn’t his friend. I thought that was a little extreme. I thought that was the wrong choice of words. I think that’s going to trigger a lot of backlash,” Dash said in an interview with “The Art of Dialogue” podcast, posted to YouTube on Dec. 21.
His comments came after Spiro spoke with NBC News on Dec. 16 — and at a roundtable with reporters in New York City that same day — about a civil lawsuit alleging Jay-Z and Diddy took turns raping a 13-year-old girl in 2000 at an the MTV Video Music Awards afterparty.
Both Jay-Z and Diddy have vehemently denied the now 38-year-old woman’s allegations.
Related: Diddy Accuser Describes Alleged Assault at White Party: ‘I Was Screaming’
During his interview with NBC, Spiro tried to distance his client from Diddy, who is currently jailed at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking and racketeering charges, after pleading not guilty.
“There is no friendship or longtime bond here,” Spiro told the network. “Just because they knew each other, know each other, that doesn’t mean anything.”
Dash told “The Art of Dialogue” that Jay-Z got “a pass” from Black media outlets for “25 years straight,” but he said the story of the alleged rape has grown too big to ignore.
“He can control Black media because a lot of them either work [for] or do business with him, but ‘Drink Champs’ can’t get him out of this one and neither can Charlamagne [Tha God], ’cause those are the guys that hold him down no matter what he does,” Dash claimed. “He’s got to get to People magazine and Entertainment Tonight right now, ’cause they’re on his head like that.”
“I’ve never seen [Jay-Z] in this position, to have to explain himself,” he added.
Later in the interview, Dash admitted he’s been at odds with Jay-Z for years over the way their business relationship ended, and said he’s no fan of Spiro’s legal tactics.
Although he said about the allegations against Jay-Z, “I hope that s–t didn’t happen.”
Watch the interview with Damon Dash below:
