In 1992, Damon Dash organized a tour for Jay which made $19 Million. He served as former manager and business partner of Jay-Z at Roc-a-Fella Records. This entrepreneur used to sweep the floors of a local barbershop and sold newspapers to buy sneakers and shirts. I'm from Detroit, man," he says, and just as he says it, a cartoon gleam shines on his teeth, like in a cartoon or a chewing gum commercial.Damon Dash: Early Career, Professional Life That Detroit swag pops up in the movie: at one point, Duncan's character explains why he's a little sharper than the average guy. "Especially for someone who's not from Detroit, he's a very interesting guy, and he's got a lot of Detroit swag that comes with him." "He's an individual," says the New York native, of Duncan. So making a movie about health care and business and being successful in that lineage, maybe the rest of the world, culturally, will think they can get it."ĭash spent a lot of time talking to Duncan - who sold his health care company, Trusted Health, to CareFirst in 2020 for a reported $130 million - and his family members while framing the story. "If we only see us hurting each other or being abused or playing sports, that's all we think we can do. So because we never see these positive images, we don't even know that they can happen," says Dash, who parted ways with Jay-Z in 2004. "My thing is, if culturally you only see negative images, that's all you think can happen. So I needed to make some visuals that coincided with the message I've been speaking on lately. "Sometimes we talk about the things that are problematic about our culture, us being violent and us hating each other, but when we go make a record about it or make a movie about it and it contradicts exactly what you're saying. "I liked what it represented," says Dash, 52. Faizon Love, Nick Turturro and Columbus Short co-star in the film.ĭash says he was attracted to the message of the film, and its positive depiction of a successful Black family. Brown, a flashy Detroit businessman and one-time member of the Dramatics. It traces his rise to wealth and prominence through the story of his mother, Robin Barclay, the former COO of Southwest Detroit Hospital Managed Care Systems, and his stepfather, Harley K. The film stars Duncan as Tony Fox, an only slightly fictionalized version of himself. In addition to holding a red carpet premiere Friday night at Music Hall in Detroit, the independently financed feature also debuts this weekend in about 40 AMC Theatres nationwide, before a planned release on Dash's America Nu network later this summer. So Dash rolled up his sleeves and made the movie himself. "They were like, 'Yo, you're known for guns, you're known for images of your people hurting each other, not these positive images.' They didn't know how to act." "The corporate figures, the agents, they couldn't understand the movie," says Dash, on the phone this week from his home in Winter Haven, Florida. Dash says the movie was met with opposition from power brokers, who weren't prepared for the film's depiction of Black wealth outside of the sports and entertainment industries, or without the influence of the gangster lifestyle. The entrepreneur, filmmaker and co-founder of Jay-Z's Roc-a-Fella Records' latest film, "The Prince of Detroit," tells the story of Tommy Duncan, a Detroiter who made millions in the health care industry, following in the footsteps of his wealthy, successful parents. Damon Dash wanted to show a different kind of Black success on screen.
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