Damon Dash, once one of hip-hop's biggest moguls, forced to sell off rights to his life story for just $550,000, amount set to help pay his $25 million debt

Damon Dash, once one of the wealthiest men in the world of hip-hop, was forced to sell rights to his life story for just over half-a-million dollars. And the money is not going to Dash but to his creditors amid his bankruptcy proceedings. The rights to the life story of the 55-year-old music mogul, who co-founded the Roc-A-Fella label, have been auctioned off, according to court records.

The trustee in charge of Dash’s bankruptcy served a notice to the Florida court overseeing the procedure on Wednesday (Oct. 21), confirming that the auction took place earlier this month and had been completed.

Who bought the rights?

The winning bidder was Everlasting Films, which paid $550,000 for exclusive worldwide rights to Dash’s life story, in addition to "100 hours of video content, photographs, and memorabilia". The film company will also get the rights to "an unreleased, in-development documentary/film project."

In case Everlasting Films fails to close the deal within the stipulated period of time, a man named Doug Peters, who made a $500,000 bid, will be handed the rights to Dash's life story.

The process had begun in August, when trustee Traci K Stevenson filed court documents seeking to auction off the rights, with the collected money planned to go to Dash's lenders.

At that time, Stevenson said that Dash had not listed his life rights among his assets when he filed for bankruptcy last year, despite their "evident value in light of the Debtor’s public profile and his historical association with Roc-A-Fella Records and [Jay-Z]."

"The monetization of an individual’s name, image, and likeness has become a well-established and actively regulated commercial market,” Stevenson wrote.

"That market confirms that rights of this character—a person’s name, image, likeness, persona, and life narrative—are recognized as commercially valuable, transferrable property, further supporting the Trustee’s business judgment that the Property is a marketable Estate asset appropriate for sale," the trustee added.

Dash filed for bankruptcy last year

Dash had filed for bankruptcy in September last year, declaring $25 million in debt and only $4,350 in personal assets. Recently, filmmaker Josh Webber accused Dash of failing to pay over $4,000 in sanctions ordered by a federal judge in the duo's longstanding legal feud.

Damon “Dame” Dash was the business brains behind Roc-A-Fella Records, which he launched in 1994 alongside the rapper Jay-Z and Kareem “Biggs” Burke. Dash and Jay-Z also founded the clothing brand Rocawear in 1999, but the two later had a falling out.