14 DAY TRIAL // Several media outlets are reporting today that rapper Jay z is involved in a very messy and rather absurd blackmail scandal involving a collection of 50 of his original master recordings which have been valued at over $30 million (€21.7 million).
Apart from the blackmail, there is also theft connected to the scandal which is now being investigated by police and it's going to be turned over to a judge to determine who gets the master recordings in the end.
The scandal stemmed from an ex-intern according to Page Six, which is saying that this intern contacted Jay's Roc Nation by email and told that he was in possession of the master recordings that were made between 2002 and 2005 and that were thought to be lost many years ago when the label simply couldn't locate them anymore.
It turns out that, by some untold means, they went to this ex-intern at the now-closed New York hip-hop haven Baseline Studio, the home of Roc-A-Fella records. In his email, the employee claimed that the recordings, which include the masters of known songs such as “I Just Wanna Love U (Give It 2 Me)” and “Holla,” were in a storage facility in Northridge, California.
In exchange for returning the masters to their rightful owner, the former employee demanded $110,000 (€79,647.8) which represented storage fees. If the sum was not paid, the recordings would go up to auction from the facility's owners.
People at the Roc Nation label sent someone out to meet with the man and agreed to pay him $2,500 (€1,810.18) in order to open the storage facility and take a look inside. It turned out the man was not lying and the master recordings mentioned in the email were there. The police was promptly called.
But here is the tricky part: since the tapes were never reported missing or stolen, the police have their hands tied behind their back. A report must be filed with the New York police before any inquiry can be made.
The clever execs at the label stalled the ex-intern for a day until they could file the needed report with the local police and on the day they were supposed to meet, they also brought the cops along. The man was arrested and later released “pending further investigation.”
The tapes are now in the possession of the police, which is going to use them as evidence. Roc Nation is expected to file a request to get them back as Jay Z still owns the rights to all the master recordings. The interesting thing is that some of those masters include songs that have never been released so there could be some exciting leaks in the near future.