Posted by Dame Dash looks back on his music video days with some regrets and made an interesting confession regarding that era when speaking with The Breakfast Club at the end of last month.
Dash alluded to his former label Roc-A-Fella having trouble selling records after the enormous success of Jay-Z’s third album Vol 2: Hard Knock Life which went 5 times platinum.
Jay’s follow-up, Vol 3: Life and Times of S. Carter failed to capture that same success and caused some problems for the label, according to Dash who said the “Big Pimpin” video is really what helped put them back on the map.
“I needed to get the video right because we weren’t selling any records and that was our last resort or else, then I was going to start rapping,” said Dash when asked about his now infamous appearance in the music video. “If that record didn’t crack I was going to start rapping. [The business] went flat [at that time]. Everyone was trying to get on TRL. After Hard Knock Life things weren’t as good.”
Dash can be seen in the video pouring champagne on some of the video models and just acting a fool. At the time, he felt like his appearance could garner some buzz for the song.
“Strategically I was like I’m gonna just go and drink two bottles of Belvedere and I’m going to make sure the video pops,” Dash continued. “But I’m not proud of that [moment].”
Dash is usually asked about the fallout between him and Jay-Z during interviews, but this was one of those rare moments where he was able to give us an idea at what kind of business was being done at the height of the label’s existence.
Jay-Z went on to release a slew of successful albums after “Big Pimpin” including certified classics The Blueprint and The Black Album before the label was sold to Def Jam in 2004.
Rant or Reason 