Rapper Jay Z may be forced to pay for his own recordings after his former producer put them up for sale last week.
Chauncey Mahan, a producer at Roc-A-Fella Records between 1998 and 2002, contacted an associate of Jay Z last week asking him to pay a $100,000 ‘storage fee’ for tapes that were previously thought lost but had been in a Northridge, California storage facility.
Representatives for Jay Z contacted the Los Angeles Police Department, whose officers seized the tapes pending a court decision on their ownership.
Mahan, who had been expecting someone to arrive with the $75,000 ‘ransom’ he had negotiated when the police arrived, was not arrested, since he claims to be the rightful owner of the recordings. The tapes are estimated to potentially be worth $20 million to whoever succeeds in their claim.
Beverly Hills Police Department is apparently investigating the extortion allegations and Jay Z’s people have filed a grand larceny complaint with the NYPD in an ongoing investigation.
