The Genius Behind Roc-A-Fella Records : Entertainment Mogul Dame Dash
24:37 Share

Your dreams have to be so big that no one else sees them. If people could see them, they would have did it. So it's a good thing. And you have to be prepared to do it yourself. Never base your bills on your best year. Oh, yes. That's true. I started to learn how American wealth is actually built. It's all built with government contracts. I have so many different ideas that I have to do it without raising a dollar. I do it on my own. Once I create something, then...

Either I figure out how to scale, which is where I'm at now, or I got to go raise some money for broke. And until that happens, you're broke. You know, I call it broke because I ain't looking at no money. And day to day, you got to keep the lights on. Don't ever let somebody get something on you.

to where they can control you. All money is not good money. You have to be consistent. You got to live your brand every day, you know, and just don't conform to other people's bad ways of doing business. That's always the test. Your only test is based on your faith and faith comes with time. So you have to go through some bad to appreciate the good. It's just a lesson. Just breathe easy and be cool. Always be cool. My name's Rudy Moore, host of Living the Red Life podcast, and I'm here to change the way you see your life.

in your earpiece every single week if you're ready to start living the red life ditch the blue pill take the red pill join me in wonderland and change your life hey guys welcome back to another episode of living the red life very special session today we have dame dash in the house if you don't know who dame dash is well he was one of the first in the hip-hop rap industry very disruptive uh

He helped Jay-Z break into hip hop. He was the founder or co-founder of Rockefeller. Now he's the CEO of Made by Dane Dash. He has a clothing line and he's got a wealth of experience as an entrepreneur, literally starting at 19, right? He's organized massive tours for Jay-Z, helped Kanye get his start, Kevin Hart, the list goes on.

But yes, I'm excited. So, Dane, welcome to the show. Nice to be here. I appreciate your having me, Paul. So, I would love just to kick off the show. If someone doesn't, you know, kind of know your track record and everything you're doing and have done and you're up to now, could I get a kind of minute or two just kind of to recap for the audience what your kind of life history around business has been? I know you've done a lot. When I was a teenager, I was a drug dealer.

And I didn't find that it was sustainable. But what I learned about was branding and being consistent and having people working for me and all those things. But I was doing them, you know, one of the constraints of the recourse of failing was jail or death. And, you know, it was illegal and hurting my culture. So at a very early age, I realized that it wasn't sustainable. And because of certain things that have happened,

In that moment of me being a teenager, which I'd made movies about, like Paid and Fool, kids getting kidnapped and tortured, I pivoted and I went the route of music. So at 19 years old, I became a manager. And, you know, long story short,

Got a record deal with Clark Kent for Atlantic Records. And what I learned was, depending on them, would also not be sustainable. And, you know, I collectively started managing a lot of artists, one of them being Jay-Z. And, you know, we just decided at some point, after shopping him to a lot of different labels, and me having a record deal with two different artists, Original Flavor and...

the future sound, that we should just do it ourselves. And, you know, me, him, and Biggs, we just collectively put the records out, did it ourselves. And that entailed touring and making merch and, you know, going and running up into radio stations because that's what was popping back then. And I had wild success with Rockefeller.

And then Rockwear, which was the clothing. And then the movies. And, you know, touring. And, you know, looking for other businesses. And, you know, that classic tale of, you know, once you don't need the middleman, you get rid of them. And pause for me being the connection to a lot of talent. I was the middleman. Once they didn't need me anymore, you know, I felt they did things that I wouldn't do.

And I just decided to do things completely independently and only do what made me happy, do it the right way, and only work with the people I wanted to work with, which meant, you know, not raising money and really flipping. And also in the mix of that, what people don't understand is having money and holding money, earning millions of dollars is a business within itself. Yes.

So if you don't know what taxes to pay, when to pay taxes, how to pay taxes, if people that you pay don't do right by you and there's no recourse for them, you become accountable. So you also like, I found that I ended up owing like $18 million in taxes, even though I've been paying Barry Farber over a quarter million dollars a year.

And the thing about when you have a lot of money, you don't notice when people are dipping and doing things until shit slows down. Yep. So, and then also, you know, once your money gets funny, that's when your wife wants to divorce you. But they establish your child support based on the best year of your life. Yeah. Stuff with the same child support for the next 20 fucking years, no matter how much money you make.

And the only way to get the child support reduced based on the money you make is to go to court and get naked. And who feels like doing that? So being an entrepreneur is a challenge, but life is a challenge. And I'd rather have this challenge than getting up every day when someone else tells me to do something for something that I don't own and have to deal with weird people. Yeah.

So I know another one is the people you've worked with, right? You've worked with the biggest celebrities, artists, actors, and been partners with many of them. Who are some of the people that you've collabed with over the years? You know, Kanye, put him out, Paul, Jay-Z, everybody. Put Kevin Hart, directed, discovered Kevin Hart. And now I decided, you know, tried to sell electric cars.

And I decided that I wanted to do a television. Oh, started Rachel Roy, big fashion brand. That's a tragic story within itself. And even though it's great. And now I started my own television network. And any business I'm in, the first time I do it, I never succeed. Like the first record deal I had, you know, it took me years to figure it out. You know, I opened up galleries around the world as well. DD-172 and all this. I should Google it.

But the first thing I did was creative control and those are the cats that without the Kanye doc that was my first television network. My second television network was Dame Dash Studios which was a subscription and that doesn't work for anybody. And this next wave is American New which is programmatic understanding the benefit of getting the full CPMs and the data

you know, add stacks, waterfalls, all that type of talk. Also becoming a director and actually directing the majority of the content that's on there. Also rock star, put the Black Keys on in rock and roll, did this project Black Rock. And I decided I made an album with my own rock band, the Black Guns and Freeway. We just have an album we're about to put out.

And my music division is called Blue Rock Records. It's, yeah, kind of a wild ride. I mean, there's a few things I would love to unpack there. Like, I think the first one that I always admire with entrepreneurs and people like yourself is...

you see a gap, right? Or an opportunity. And then you kind of come in and fill it. And that's kind of how it all started. You realize you could, you know, do this yourself, manage it better. And that kind of created that, that first big thing for you. And then every time, you know, these later businesses and all the stuff that you're up to now, uh, and everything in between, uh,

You know, I'm sure a lot of it's come out of, you know, finding a gap in the marketplace, right? Or something you're passionate about, something you feel you could do better. So it's about turning something that I would do for free into something that can make me a lot of money without compromise because I'm a rock star in the superyield.

Good. I love that. I love that. And what were some of the, I would love to, you know, talk about some of the lessons, you know, really kind of growing those first few brands that if you could go back in time 20, 30 years and teach yourself, what would they be? Yeah, I remember I was 19 years old and everything I did worked.

So I don't think I'd change a thing. You know, hiring honest people, which is almost impossible at 19 years old to know. Like, you know, everything's a learning experience. So I've just been hiring the right lawyers. Like the first deals that I did with my artists, I was wrong with them. I had all the publishing, but I didn't know any better. So once I realized it, I gave it all back. Wow.

What about kind of now, the next few years? Like I know you've got the CEO brand, you've got the American New. What's the thing that really ignites you now and gets you excited? To be honest, the stuff that I'm doing in education and politics is really exciting. Number one, helping people is exciting. Like, you know, I'm down with this OSG thing.

which is called Off School Grounds. It's hundreds of principals from economically challenged areas. And I was able to give the principals a masterclass on entrepreneurship so that they could become entrepreneurs so they could teach you. And because of that, I'm able to go into the schools and give curriculum. But also we made a book. My girl wrote a book called Dusko Goes to Space.

And it brings the cognitive skills up, teaches them about space, sees them out of dreams. And I was able, based on my television network, to give education a platform and proper politics a platform to have a voice. I get to give them the power. So I'm really excited about that. The changes that I can make within the jail system, the recidivism rate has been consistently over 90% because most children are

Most people that come out of jail or if you don't know how to read by the time you're in the fourth grade, they build a jail cell for you. And the average kid that comes out of a juvenile facility has less than a fourth grade reading level. And that guarantees that that kid's going to go back to jail. So having answers and solutions for the problems is,

and also figuring out how to monetize that as well. So in making movies, I made this movie called The Prince of Detroit about a black family that made their money generationally in healthcare and government contracts. I started to learn where they're, how American wealth is actually built. It's all built with government contracts. So understanding that and being able to teach that and also being able to explore all that has been, um,

Pretty impactful for me and exciting at this stage in my life. Being an actual rock star and being on stage, actually directing, you know, understanding new business, like, you know, the new language everyone's speaking with CPMs and AI, all the things you could do with data. But, you know, when I make a business, I don't think about what people have done in the past or the present. I'm thinking about what people are going to be doing in the future. And that's why I'm so prepared at this point.

What's different about me than anyone else is, again, in traditional business, people go and raise money and they have the room to bleed. Everyone gets a salary. You get your marketing. You still get paid even though there's losses every day.

With me, I have to take losses and pay bills and live a lifestyle. And I'm insane. I have so many different ideas, so many verticals in my brain that I want to make into tangible realities without compromise that I have to do it without raising a dollar. I do it on my own. Once I create something...

Then either I figure out how to scale, which is where I'm at now, or I got to go raise some money for growth. And until that happens, you're broke. So you're looking at a dude right now and you know, I call it broke because I ain't looking at no money. And day to day, you've got to keep the lights on. But if I go raise 50 million real fast,

I might not have to dilute as much. Or if I want to go raise some money and acquire something and get myself a payroll from that, I could do that too. But I'm just so... I'm having so much fun being a creative and a businessman. I just got to scale right now. I'm one deal away from the big dance. One advertising, one...

Just one thing away because I have technology that most people don't. And I have content. Yeah, I mean, they often say content's the future. And I see what you're building there. Ad check is the future. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. What would you say, you know, a lot of people that listen to this show, they're beginner entrepreneurs, first few years building their first million dollar thing. What would you say? Give some advice to someone in that kind of beginning phase. It always comes with struggle. Your dreams are not given to you. You have to fight for them and be prepared to pimp it. You know what I'm saying?

When one thing doesn't work, you got to go to the next, but never quit, but be smart. You know, it doesn't mean quit or stop. It means evolve and change your model because the models are changing daily. Like, you know, if you think it makes sense to invest in an electric car company right now, you're dumb. It would be investing in a hydrogen car. You know, they're going to go on water.

You would know that this electric thing is not sustainable. It's just the way you have to think. Things change. You have to pivot. You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah. And what about the... Talking about the pivot side, do you have any examples in your life where there was like something was crushing it, doing well, and then something happened and you had to make a big change?

But then it ended up being even better because I've seen that myself. Every time. I tried to get a record deal, but it was signed Jay-Z. I had to do it myself. If it wasn't for that, if it wasn't for the rejection, there would be no Rockafuck. You know, people told me not to sign Kanye. He was rejected. If there was no rejection, there would be no greatness. Yeah, wow. Crazy. Your dreams have to be so big that no one else sees them. And you have to be prepared to do it yourself. Yeah.

If people could see them, they would have did it. So it's a good thing. I love that. Yeah, I think a lot of what I've seen, I don't know about you, but that's one of the big things that stopped a lot of entrepreneurs is that belief in themselves, right? I don't have to forget it. It's like saying you're a boxer.

or a football player, any kind of competitive sport, and you don't get in there thinking you're going to win. Yeah. You have to have supreme confidence if you jump into war. Yeah, yeah. I think for me, I've always said that. I think one reason I'm successful is I have this extreme confidence, this borderline arrogance, but that's what makes me go all in on everything, and going all in is what brings the result, right? Yeah.

And it sounds like you've kind of seen that yourself too, that, you know, even when- Hard not to be confident when you're successful. Sure. And I never gauge how successful I am by the money in my bank because I gauge how successful I am by how confident I am in betting it all in my future dream. Every time I get into a new business, I don't expect to actually know it the first day.

Like don't be arrogant and think that because you've done something you haven't been successful at because it makes sense, it's going to work. You got to know that the first time you do something, no matter what, is going to be curable. God, we're in this vibration, this life to be challenged. There is no one that you know or me or anyone that you know knows someone rich, poor, black, white, whatever, that goes through life with no problem. It doesn't exist.

Everyone has the same amount of problems. Everyone feels the same amount of pause, pain. It's just all relative. So don't think anything is going to be perfect. And the minute you think in your mind it is, God's going to remix it because he doesn't want you to get it the first time. They want you to be challenged. It's about seeing how you react. Our behavior patterns are being studied by God.

The same way we just study other people's behavior. You know, it's not the problems you're getting. It's how you're coping with those problems. I think that separates the successful and the not successful. And even in the workplace, right, we fire employees that don't handle those problems well and have negativity versus a positive, figure it out kind of approach, which is what makes entrepreneurs so great.

Then when you fire them because they didn't do their job, they make up something to sue you to go get some more money. It's always your fault, right? You learn that as a CEO, as a business owner. One more question for you. You've obviously kind of worked with so many powerful people in your life, obviously yourself included. What's one thing a lot of brands we work with, they're working with celebrities and influencers and you've kind of

Grown up in that world, what are some tips when trying to work with some of these powerful people or well-known figures and incorporating them into growing brands? Don't ever let somebody get something on you to where they can control. Don't go get drunk in the club because they're doing it. They're sometimes doing it just so they got you doing it. All money is not good money. You have to be consistent. You got to live your brand every day.

all day long even when you sleep to the second you wake up you know and just don't conform to other people's bad ways of doing business that's always the test and you're only tested based on your faith and faith comes with time so you have to go through some bad to appreciate the good you know don't don't sit it's just a lesson just breathe easy and be cool

Always be cool. I love that. Where in these new ventures are you kind of getting some wins? Or what are some things in the new ventures that you're having some struggles, right? The thing that's popping in most of the kids' books, Rocky sold 60,000 of those this year.

This year, this fiscal. Wow. You know, for American New, we have close to 50,000 downloads. I haven't put a dollar into growth. I had a dollar into marketing. It's just been straight hand-to-hand, and that's amazing. Wow. You know, with programmatic, it's about engagement. You need at least a million hits or engagements a day to make some real coin.

And that doesn't happen overnight. And I just think the only issue is I'm broke. Like I got to wait for the money to come back. So waiting for that makes me uncomfortable. Again, unless I scale, figure out how to go get these ads, branded ads, as opposed to waiting for the programmatic, then it'll be time to raise. But right now my family owes 100%. We haven't diluted. We never raised.

Usually what happens, again, when you raise for a big idea, you're giving 80% of that up. Yes. You only get 20 if you get paid out last. You don't want that. So I try to, when I choose to dilute, I want it to be a different way. I'd rather keep 80 and you get 20. I'd rather have skin in the game, balls, millions, and shit that would cost people a lot of money and a lot of time. I already got it. Turn and keep. So we could either merge or acquisition based on now.

Or I could figure out how to scale, get these ads and start making money enough to cover my expenses and to put some money into growth. Because you could always pay for distribution like that. Yeah, I think it's cool to see like even after all your success and experience,

You're on to something new and you're kind of playing that long game, right? And you're building from the ground up. And I think that's funny to, you know, for entrepreneurs. I'm 54 years old. I literally retired from Rockefeller at 35. Yeah, crazy. And then I've been having a ball. It's been 20 years. Wow. You know what I mean? And I'm still excited. And I suggest that, again, for me,

What keeps me going, what keeps me young, what keeps me cool is living with a purpose. For sure. It's not something to wake up and fight for. But the problem is, you know, sometimes I make my family, like not my kids, they never feel, they're not broke. My kids are never broke. They're my baby mothers. They got it. They got all the bread. You know, the ones that are rocky witchy, sometimes I don't want them to have to feel that anxiety when the IRS starts knocking and when you start getting the lawsuits.

I know what's going to happen. And I don't really care about no money because no one gets paid unless I got money. So if I hold $12, $20 million, unless I make $20 million, how the fuck are you going to get it? That's the statute. Every single dollar I make, there's no way I can flip it.

So until I make a certain amount of money, the government and everyone else should be helping me get there so I can pay off whatever debt that I got. Yeah, they say in entrepreneurship, the first goal is always to make the money and then the new goal becomes how to keep the money, right? It's the second thing.

Keeping the money is the business. That's the hardest. Making money is too easy. Never base your bills on your best year. That's true. For people that, you know, want to learn more and maybe be part of some of the stuff you're doing now and learn more about the stuff that you're up to now. So you go to American and download it. Free American and YouTube. And, you know, I'm on TikTok and I'm on, you know, I got a lot of followers on Instagram. Everything does go poppin' tits. Anything on Dane Dash is a fuck.

And we'll put that in the show notes too, guys. This has been an awesome episode. Thank you so much for coming on. It's amazing to hear the story, the lessons and some of the takeaways. I mean, some of the truths that everyone needs to hear and stay aligned to and hearing that it's not all sunshine and rainbows, right? There's a lot of challenges and I

Yeah, I love how, you know, kind of genuine and honest you are. I mean, it will help a lot of people. So thank you for your time. Thank you for being a part of the red light. And we'll see you guys soon. Take care. Later.