![]() ![]() A 2010 New York Observer article about what it refers to as his “hippie art collective” DD172 sneeringly titled “ The Wannabe Warhol” depicts Dash as a crackpot would-be cultural revolutionary presiding over a strange performance space/art incubator/happening-facilitator, and discoursing pretentiously about what he describes as “Wack World,” a sinister realm filled with businessmen coldly obsessed with finding ways to make money off upscale urban products. In the article, Dash comes off as a parody of nouveau-riche obliviousness as he discusses why he refuses to wear shoes, T-shirts, or socks more than once, and favors the amused reporter with his thoughts on the importance of the right help, opining, “Not many people understand how important having a butler is, but it is.”įour years, many bad investments (including a line of Keds sneakers with fruit-flavored soles), and lots of bad press later, Dash cut a much different figure. His partnership with Jay-Z had ended acrimoniously, leaving him extraordinarily wealthy, but without a primary outlet for his ferocious energy. ![]() The piece captures Dash at a curious professional crossroads. A gently (and sometimes not so gently) mocking 2006 profile in New York magazine illustrates why Dash’s public fall from grace generated both gleeful schadenfreude and sympathy. ”Įven after he split with Jay-Z in 2004, following the sale of Roc-A-Fella to Def Jam, Dash remained a great story. ![]() Even the film's Netflix summary is a lie. The opening credits prominently billing Jay-Z are a lie. “ The DVD box promising a Jay-Z comedy is a lie. Music and fashion dazzled Dash’s short attention span before he turned his attention to the world of film, launching Roc-A-Fella’s film branch. He’s also an inveterate dilettante whose far-flung résumé reflects his diverse interests and inability to concentrate on anything. Dash is a personality above all else, a whirlwind of gab, attitude, ideas, and energy. ![]() The press loved Dash nearly as much as he loved himself-or at least, it was morbidly fascinated by him. Dash became famous through force of will and stubborn persistence, but also because he made great copy. Dash was the untethered, rampaging id to Jay-Z’s cold, calculating ego. In most partnerships, the artist provides the flash, but with Dash and Jay-Z, it was the other way around. In the good years, Dash and Jay-Z were complementary opposites. Puff Daddy at least rationalized his hunger for the spotlight by pretending to be a rapper Dash needed no such excuse to be front and center in Jay-Z’s videos throughout the 1990s. When he burst onto the scene alongside Jay-Z in the mid-1990s, clutching a bottle of Cristal in both hands, Dash represented a weird new archetype: the businessman as superstar. When Damon “Dame” Dash dies, his obituary will inevitably describe him as Jay-Z’s one-time business partner (unless their recent low-key reconciliation blossoms into more), but that doesn’t do justice to the strange role Dash has played in pop culture. Dash produced Shadowboxer, the first of Daniels’ unintentionally hilarious melodramas, and co-directed and produced Paper Soldiers, in addition to contributing a self-deprecating cameo as himself. The connection, I suspect, boiled down to a fascinating figure named Damon “Dame” Dash, who bridges the worlds of uptown and downtown, the arthouse and the streets. It doesn’t share any major cast or crew members with The Butler, nor are they thematically similar. But the recommendation engine suggested I might also like the 2002 comedy Paper Soldiers, and that connection was much less clear. When I started with Lee Daniels’ The Butler, Netflix’s suggestion that I might also like Magic Mike looked simple enough: Matthew McConaughey starred in Daniels’ hilarious melodrama The Paperboy the same year he starred in Magic Mike. Perhaps the Netflix recommendation robot wasn’t providing easy answers, so much as challenging me to find connections myself. Perhaps it’s not just a simple piece of technology, but rather a complicated form of artificial intelligence capable of doing deep research and making sophisticated associations that might elude lesser intellects. Now, however, I fear I’ve underestimated it. During the previous installments of this column, I viewed Netflix’s recommendation engine merely as a computer algorithm that draws clear-cut connections between projects. ![]()
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