UPDATE #2: Just Blaze had taken to Twitter recently to speak on Chauncey Mahan, and it’s kind of hilarious (below).
“Chauncey stayed effing up. Big part of the reason Hip and I brought in Guru…Ill never forget the day Chaunce stepped to Duro wanting to fight lol. This guy ruined every tape transfer for the Dynasty Album. Duro calls him out on it. He runs over to Soundtrack studios, comes in the room like “yo Duro I ain’t no b*tch” takes his jacket off. Me and Duro just looked at him. Blankest of stares.. And went back to work. If you listen to Bleek’s version of “is that your b***h” you’ll notice it’s in mono. Why? Bc Chauncey. Lol. If u listen to “get your mind right” from Dynasty, You’ll notice all the choruses after the first one fall in the wrong places. Bc Chauncey. We had to re record “streets is talking” vox. Why? Bc Chauncey. We eventually got tired of it. I randomly ended up doing a session with this new engineer who called himself @Young_Guru. He was young, understood the sound, and knew what he was doing. Brought him in on a Hov session as a test and it clicked. Rest is history. Oh. And I have backups of just about all of those files Chauncey tried to extort for. Dummy. Last thing @ind3lible and I did before we shut down baseline was a digital back up of EVERYTHING that was ever done there. EVERYTHING.”
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UPDATE: According to Hypetrak, the producer who’s being accused of extortion stated that “Def Jam had requested that he hold on the recordings and claiming his prior attempts to hand them over in the last ten years had been ignored by Jay Z’s camp”. Riiiiight.
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From TMZ:
A collection of Jay Z master recordings — valued between $15 and $20 MILLION — is at the center of an alleged theft and extortion plot … and TMZ has learned, police have already nabbed the tapes.
Law enforcement sources tell TMZ … a producer named Chauncey Mahan — who worked with Jay Z from 1998-2002 — was questioned Friday in connection with the alleged plot.
Here’s the backstory … Jay Z’s Roc-A-Fella Records recorded a boatload of master recordings between 1998 – 2002. We’re told in 2002 the masters went missing — Jay Z and his people assumed they were lost.
Fast forward to this past Friday. Mahan apparently had a number of the masters in his Northridge, CA storage facility. Law enforcement sources tell TMZ … Mahan allegedly contacted Live Nation — which has a joint venture with Jay Z called Roc Nation — and said he would either let the tapes go up for auction or give them the tapes for a $100K “storage fee.” We’re told Mahan eventually agreed to take $75K.
We’re told on Friday Mahan went to the storage facility to seal the deal with Jay Z’s people. Little did he know the LAPD had been contacted by Jay Z’s people and showed up. We’re told cops then detained Mahan and he agreed to come into the station for questioning. He also agreed to let the LAPD take possession of the tapes until a judge determines ownership.
Mahan was not arrested, but our sources say the Beverly Hills PD is investigating the extortion allegations because that’s where Live Nation is based. We’re also told Jay Z’s people filed a grand larceny complaint Friday with the NYPD and that investigation is ongoing.
