Jay-Z Sues Jonathan Mannion & Damon Dash Over Image Exploitation

Jay-Z is suing for using his likeness in photography print selling and NFT submissions.

Billionaire rapper Jay-Z is suing ‘Reasonable Doubt’ photographer Jonathan Mannion for allegedly exploiting his name and image without permission.

Hov is reportedly suing both Mannion and his company, Jonathan Mannion Photography, LLC, for using the artist’s name and likeness on his website as well as selling photos of the artist for thousands of dollars. The Roc Nation head also alleges that Mannion demanded tens of millions of dollar when he was asked to stop using the photos; JAY claims that the photographer is making an “arrogant assumption that because he took those photographs, he can do with them as he pleases.”

Furthermore, the artist asserts that there are photos of him on Mannion’s website, where other photos and merchandise of JAY-Z are being sold. Hov has “strict control over whether and how his name, likeness, identity and persona are used,” however, and the photographer was never given permission to use the images in any way. Mannion supposedly took hundreds of photos of a young Hov in 1996 for Reasonable Doubt, and he was apparently paid a good amount of money by Roc-A-Fella for the images. The famed rapper now notes that it is “ironic that a photographer would treat the image of a formerly-unknown Black teenager, now wildly successful, as a piece of property to be squeezed for every dollar it can produce. It stops today.”

According to HYPEBEAST, Roc-A-Fella is also suing, one of its founders, Damon Dash for attempting to sell NFTs related the JAY-Z’s ‘Reasonable Doubt’ LP without permission.

TMZ reported that The “first-of-its-kind” lawsuit was filed by attorney Alex Spiro and claims that Dash attempted to sell the record at a now-cancelled auction as an NFT to the highest bidder. Reasonable Doubt is supposedly owned by Roc-A-Fella, and the label asserts that the founder is “frantically scouting for another venue to make the sale.” The label is now requesting a court to stop Dash from auctioning off the NFT, as well as hand over any NFTs of the album that he might have already minted.