Radio Ro Blog

Things aren't looking too great for Dame these days...

He's got no money, but he sure does have mo' problems. Roc-A-Fella Records and Rocawear co-founder Damon Dash has been slapped with divorce papers by wife Rachel Roy.

The stunning fashion designer piled onto Dash's already sizable stack of lawsuits when she filed for divorce from her husband of four years this month in Manhattan Supreme Court. Ed Hayes, a lawyer for Roy, declined comment, and a Dash spokeswoman did not return calls or e-mails. An electronic record of the case says the divorce is for "nonmonetary relief" and should be resolved by February.

Dash and Roy, who put her own name on a women's fashion line, got hitched in Mexico in January 2005. They met when Roy was working at Rocawear and have two daughters. The breakup is the latest legal mess for the has-been hip-hop titan, whose empire - which he once pegged at "about $50 million" in a New York magazine profile - has crumbled under massive debt, bad business deals and one suit after another.

Dash, who in 2005 sold his stake in Rocawear to Jay-Z for $20 million, owes $2 million in state taxes, and a bank has started foreclosure proceedings on his two Tribeca condos.

A Manhattan judge even ordered the city to seize his luxury Chevrolet Tahoe SUV last year when he couldn't make the $714.99 monthly payment. He's also being sued by law firms and landlords for not paying his bills.The fall has been a spectacular one for Dash, who sipped Champagne on a yacht in Jay-Z's video for "Big Pimpin'" - then emptied his bottle of bubbly onto bikini-clad beauties in a hot tub. "He's broke, he's got nothing left," a source said.

Dash debuted last year as a theater producer with the "Hip-Hop Monologues," an Off-Broadway account of the life of his latest protégé, rapper Jim Jones. The production is set to resume performances tonight at 37 Arts in Manhattan.While he may have been short on cash, Dash wasn't short on confidence when he hyped the show in New York magazine and vowed to make a splashy return to the music business. "And when I come back, I'm gonna change the economy as well," he said.

With the Aaliyah biopic in production, buzz has spread across the Internet about "baby girl" playing a possible love interest to both Jay-Z and Dame Dash igniting their ongoing feud...

Former best pals and business partners JAY-Z and DAMON DASH fell out over their love for late R&B beauty AALIYAH, American producer/director CHOKE NO JOKE has suggested.

Roc-A-Fella Records co-founders Jay-Z, Dash and Kareem ‘Biggs' Burke parted ways in 2004 after a number of disagreements.

Jay-Z took control of the established rap label and later went on to become president of Def Jam, while Dash and Burke formed their own imprint, DDMG (Damon Dash Music Group).

However, filmmaker Choke No Joke insists the bitter relationship between Jay-Z and Dash extended beyond business and spilled over into their personal lives.

He alludes to the pair both enjoying close relationships with singer, actress and model Aaliyah, and that Jay-Z became unhappy when Dash started publicly dating her in late 2000, up until her untimely death in 2001.

He tells Hip Hop Weekly, "Both Jay and Dame was involved with a certain R&B singer, who I'm not gonna say her name out of respect 'cause she ain't around to defend herself, but I believe that was a part of the initial friction.

"I was seeing Jay with her back around 2000, then Dame was with her after. All you have to do is look at the movie they did, Death of a Dynasty. In the movie they were fighting over a model. In real life she was a model, but singing is what she was known for first." Rumours of a romance between Jay-Z and Aaliyah were never confirmed; the hip-hop superstar is now married to R&B beauty Beyonce Knowles.