Call it a Comeback: Hip Hop Bling King Damon Dash does Beijing

Jerry — Tue, 04 May 2010 14:36:36 +0800

With both the Midi and Strawberry festivals going down this past weekend, hip hop impresario Damon Dash was spotted out and about town taking in Beijing's music scene.

Renowned for being Jay-Z's first producer and launching the careers of Kanye West, Beanie Sigel and Cam’ron, among others, Dash rose from rough and tumble beginnings in Harlem and amassed an empire that included "a record label, five clothing and shoe companies, a Swiss watch company, a top-shelf vodka company, a television production house, and a movie production company ... worth an estimated USD 50 million," according to the Atlanta Post.

But his fortunes fell in 2004 after a very public falling out with his former protege, Jay-Z (read all about it here). With his marriage, houses and business interests on the rocks, the 38-year-old has been working on rebuilding his empire with a host of creative music, art and business related projects - among them DD172, a four-story art salon-cum-music space in Tribeca, Creative Control (an online TV station) and the BlackRoc project that has paired Ohio blues rock wunderkinds The Black Keys with a who's-who of MCs, including Mos Def, Raekwon, Black Thought, The RZA and more.

The Beijinger Blog - Nanluoguxiang

Call it a Comeback: Hip Hop Bling King Damon Dash does Beijing