Damon Dash
My delivery can be intense, but it's intense because I need to be heard. I know that people don't usually listen, as it relates to constructive criticism, without getting offended. So, I speak my mind with an attitude that I don't care if you get offended; I just want you to get the message.Collection: Attitude
You're only the boss if you put up your own money.Collection: Money
Freedom is priceless.Collection: Freedom
I think one of the most important things in evolving is forgiveness.Collection: Forgiveness
I work to go on vacation. Hopefully, the more money I make, my vacations will get a little longer to the point where they last a year.
I believe in therapy, and I believe an objective opinion sometimes helps you be a better person.
The worst disrespect of all time is to disrespect someone's children.
Look at my life. I ain't got nothing to be mad about.
If you're not talking about the truth, I don't even want you around me.
I'm a businessman who puts up his own money, so I don't have time to hear about emotion. I gotta get right to the point. I'm going to tell you the truth, I'm going to address the elephant in the room, and we'll all move forward.
I had to architect my life where I could raise my children.
Being independent is everything. That's all I know.
I think that the better sign of an OG is when he's happy that the person that he raised got bigger than him and in a position where they could help.
I'm a true businessman.
When you're a business man, you have a lot of businesses, a lot of times they think you're laundering money or you're pretending you're writing things off that you don't.
The reason why Roc-A-Fella crossed and became so essential to pop culture is that we were probably the most authentic people that were also so sophisticated.
Everything that scared me is losing people I love, and everyone that I really love, as it relates to females, I've lost. So what it's made me be is the animal that I am because I don't want to sit down and think about the things that are hurting me, but, you know.
I never really considered myself super hip-hop, ever in life. I don't think anything that I've done reflects that.
I don't like to be considered a 'hip-hop mogul.' I don't know what that means.
It's very rare that a person, especially in his twenties and thirties, can do more than one business and do it well.
Work harder than everyone, be patient, and just know that if you're going to do something on your own, you're gonna have to feel some pain.
When my children look and ask about what I do, they know I'm the boss.
My favorite record was the one I produced with Clark Kent.
First of all, how could I be broke, and I got all these companies?
It's incomprehensible for me to hear another dude talk about another's dude's pockets and have that matter and argue about that.
You do something when you're 20, and you're still paying for it when you're 40.
If somebody asks you the same questions 25 times, maybe 2,500 times, do you still want to talk about the same thing?
We not from Hollywood, so I'm not playing Hollywood's game.
I don't complain about other people's game - I just create my own.
Every little thing I've done as an adult and as a young adult, I've done diabetic.
A diabetic always wants to help another diabetic.
I'm proud of Jay Z's success and Kanye's success. Inside, I feel like I had something to do with their success... I don't have anything but positive things to say.
In urban culture, Larry Davis is something of a legend.
Big shout out to Nas: if you want to scream my name out again and put my name in your rhyme, I think it's funny. Let's make some money from it. Just don't take it so serious, man.
I'm knee-deep into fashion; I'm knee-deep into movies.
If I can't do things to the fullest, I don't want to do it.
I don't wanna be yelling all my life. How loud did I have to yell to say that Jay-Z was the man and the best rapper of all time?
I love music, but the people in the music don't wanna work.
I never had to ask Def Jam for anything.
Def Jam and Roc-A-Fella were two equal entities under the Def Island umbrellas.
A 'Roc-A-Fella purist' is me.
I become friendly with people I work with.
I grew up in a lot of different places. I always saw the bigger picture. I was around rich kids with country houses and private jets. No disrespect to those people, but I never thought they were super geniuses. I couldn't see how I wasn't going to have those things, too.
I've never tried to be accepted. When everyone is doing one thing, I've always had the instinct to go the other way. I don't understand how an individual with their own mind, their own values, and their own beliefs can be so willing to just follow what everybody else is doing. How can you make history doing what everybody else is doing?
I lost my girl a couple years back, Aaliyah, in a plane crash. I wasn't expecting that, and also, my mother died, and at the time, my father wasn't in my life; the only person that took care of me was my mom.
You speak things into existence, but there's a gift and a curse with that. You got to be careful what you say.
I don't believe in bullying in any form, but especially not on my children.
When I was young, I read the Bible, and I already knew what it meant to be the good guy - and look what happened to Jesus. So, I already understood that you get ridiculed for telling the truth, and I've always been aware of that. But, I'm a guy with confidence, and I'm not afraid.
Part of keeping work and life in balance is surrounding yourself with people that have similar aspirations.
There's certain lines you just don't cross. You know the one thing that will get a man out of pocket is when you mess with his children.