Dame Dash may not be the most loved entrepreneur, but he does spit facts.
On a new episode of Fox Sport’s Club Shay Shay, Shannon Sharpe and Dame Dash covered various topics from Dash’s childhood, his success in the industry, and his feelings on Kanye West and Kevin Hart’s accolades. As an outspoken entrepreneur, he gave what most people expected: his raw, insightful, and honest thoughts on the music industry.
Many respond to death through the normal grieving process: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. However, when Sharpe asked about his response to his mother’s death, Dame Dash notes that her death made him more robust:
(Dash) “Made me a beast, it made me an animal. It made me fearless. My worst nightmare was losing my mother and it happened to me fairly young, so what else did I have to be scared of? And then my friends started to become killers and I knew that I would have to become one because it was part of the game and I was becoming a product of my environment. My mother worked too hard for me not to have to do that. So I put myself in boarding school. Self Care – I played football, lacrosse, and basketball.”
His relationship with his mother and with her death was one of many shocking; yet, inspiring things said in the sit-down interview. But what caught most people’s attention was Dash’s thoughts on Kanye West’s rise to fame:
(Sharpe) “When you first met Kanye, when you heard his sound, did you know he would be what he became?”
(Dash) “No, I never expected that in a billion years … I didn’t expect it. I expected other people that were in my crew to be Kanye. I expected someone to do those things, but I didn’t know it would be him. But the reason why it was him is because he had the most respect for me. He’s the only one that listened completely. And still does – on certain levels.”
Make a note of that, one of the most successful and talked about artists today may have become successful due to simply listening. As entrepreneurs, we sometimes feel like we have to do everything ourselves, but sometimes taking help from somebody else and hearing them out can be what changes everything for us.
Sharpe also asked Dame Dash to consider his reasons for putting Kevin Hart in movies:
(Dash) “I was confident in the fact that I thought he was funny. … the role I needed, he fit the role. I needed a little dude that was funny that could make fun of himself. He fit the bill. And he just took the opportunity – like I give a lot of people the same opportunities and I see potential in a lot of people that don’t realize them. Effort, and again as a professional athlete, you know, you can be good but not have the discipline and you end up going nowhere. So Kevin was just one of those people that had the work ethic and took the opportunity.