January 4, 2025
Dame Dash Says He Discovered Kevin Hart But Comedian Won’t Help Him In Return, ‘I Should Never Have to Ask for Nothing’
Damon Dash claims that he discovered Kevin Hart and apparently believes the comedian should repay him financially.
Damon Dash takes credit for discovering Kevin Hart and calls the comedian out for not paying it forward or reaching back.
The Roc-A-Fella co-founder recently sat down with Art of the Dialogue, where he didn’t hold back while expressing his gripes over his soured relationships in Hollywood. Among them is Kevin Hart, whose first acting role was in Dash’s film State Property 2.
“I discovered him. That was the first movie he was ever in,” Dash declared.
“So, you know, I was looking for comedians, and I went to the club…..I told him I had a movie I wanted him to be in, and I put him in the movie the next week. I directed them. That was like my first, that was like my directorial debut.”
He went on to cast Hart in another movie, Death of a Dynasty, which Dash says was the comedian’s second acting role, citing the early potential he saw in the rising star.
“I thought he was funny. I knew that he was safe, that white people were funny. He didn’t mind being teased,” Dash said of Hart.
When asked about the current status of his relationship with the superstar comedian, Dash mentioned that the two remain on speaking terms, but Hart “don’t help” whenever he asks for favors.
“I’ll be like, ‘yo, could you put,’ he won’t put, you know, he won’t help me promote anything I’m doing,” Dash said of Hart.
According to Dash, he shouldn’t have to ask for money from the successful individuals he helped bring into the public spotlight.
“You know what I mean? Like, to be honest to me, the amount of people that I actually put on, I should never be broke, ever in life,” Dash quipped. “I should never have to fund nothing. I should never have to struggle.”
Dash continued. “I should just look like, it should just be an anonymous bag with money all the time. The amount of people whose lives I’ve changed, if they were like on it, like, I shouldn’t even have to move, but it seems like the people that I help the most, they end up resent me the most. I don’t know why. Like, I should never have to ask for nothing.”
In March 2022, Dash was ordered to pay director Josh Webber and Muddy Water Pictures $805,000 after losing a copyright infringement lawsuit. Last year, the former hip-hop mogul sold off his shares of Roc-A-Fella Records to satisfy the lawsuit judgment.
Since his financial fall from grace, Dash has sat down for interviews where he vents his frustrations about many of his former peers. His latest remarks on Kevin Hart have been met with criticism on social media.
“Black people are the only race that expects a favor back; we’re also the only race that feels like you owe us if you make it big; we’re also the only race that would rather someone do badly than be more successful than you,” one person tweeted.
“So you helped him, so you should be able to extort him for the rest of his life?” another user wrote. “But Dame, you told us all to boss up. Pocket-watching Kevin Hart and complaining about him not returning the favor is not what I would have expected.”
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