(EXCLUSIVE) Jay Z Fights For Ownership of Roc-A-Fella Masters

Jay Z

theJasmineBRAND.com exclusively Jay Z (real name Shawn Carter) is demanding the former Roc-A-Fella engineer – who has been battling it out with the music mogul in court over the rapper’s collection of master tapes– be allowed to retrieve his property finally after years of fighting in court.

Here’s the latest: On September 19th, Jay Z filed an opposition to Mahan’s motion to not allow the music mogul or his team to be given the masters until the outcome of his civil lawsuit and bankruptcy case.

Jay points out the New York Court already ordered that the engineer was not the owner of the tapes and had no right to have them turned over to him.

Jay Z, Rick Ross

He adds that Mahan has dragged out this situation by filing numerous lawsuits in different states and each case he has been shut down. And now, he has filed yet another case saying he is the rightful owner. He says Mahan even tried to extort him to have the tapes returned at one point.

However, the mogul says this has already been decided and the masters belong to him and him alone. The L.A.P.D. has been holding onto the masters for over a year since they didn’t want to return them to the wrong person.

The rapper explains this isn’t up for debate anymore and the masters have been determined to be his property and he wants the judge to shut down Mahan’s attempt to drag out the case and for a court order, stating nobody can be given the masters until the outcome of his cases.

Jay Z

Jay Z wants the judge to order that he can retrieve the masters from the L.A.P.D., after over two years of battling it out in court with his former employee/engineer.

Here’s the backstory: Back in 2014, Chauncey Mahan, a former Roc-A-Fella engineer – became the center of an alleged theft and extortion plot all over a collection of the music moguls master recordings –worth an estimated $15-$20 million.

Jay Z had a massive collection of masters that he recorded between 1998-2002 while at Roc-A-Fella Records, but the masters went missing in 2002 and had been missing for over a decade.

Chauncey allegedly had a number of the masters in a California storage unit. The man had contacted Live Nation – who works with Jay Z under his label Roc Nation – and said he planned to auction off the masters unless he was paid a $100k ‘storage fee’. Eventually an agreement was made for him to hand over the collection and he would be paid $75k.

They agreed to meet up at the storage unit to finalize the deal, but when Chauncey arrived he was greeted by the LAPD, who were called by Jay Z’s people. The police detained Mahan and questioned him over the alleged extortion plot. Mahan agreed to hand over the tapes until a
judge determined whom the rightful owner was.

The investigation was eventually closed due to Jay Z’s camp not wanting to pursue extortion charges.

Mahan filed a lawsuit against Jay Z around the same time, in which he claimed he was a key producer and creator of Roc-A-Fella’s entire catalog. He demanded he be listed as co-owner of the song copyrights, along with a cut of the profits.

Jay Z demanded the suit be thrown out and said the former employee was a scam artist. The judge sided with the music mogul and dismissed all the claims, stating the man’s arguments were ‘frivolous’ and awarded him nothing. The judge ordered the man to pay Jay Z and Roc Nation over $250k for attorney fees. He appealed the dismissal of his lawsuit and the order for attorney fees but lost.

Jay Z

Chauncey is also currently in the middle of a Chapter 13 bankruptcy that he filed in November. One of the creditors in the case is Jay Z, due to him being awarded $250k in attorney fees after he was victorious in the legal battle with his ex-employee. Once a person files for bankruptcy, any lawsuits they are involved in which are pending are stayed, meaning they all are put on pause until the outcome of the bankruptcy — unless a judge lifts the stay and allows the suit to continue on during the bankruptcy.

Recently, the former engineer filed a motion demanding the judge order Jay Z and his team not be allowed to retrieve the masters from L.A.P.D until the outcome of his civil lawsuit and bankruptcy case — where he believed it would be determined who the rightful owner was of the masters despite a New York judge already ordering the rapper was the rightful owner.

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