He told TMZ that Def Jam had asked him to keep track of the recordings, which are for the albums Vol. 3… Life and Times of S. Carter (1999) and The Dynasty: Roc La Familia (2000). At the time, he says, Jay Z was "a stupid kid smoking blunts." Since then, he claims to have repeatedly told Hova's people that he had the masters, only to be rebuffed.
Mahan eventually asked for $100,000 last week due to the ongoing storage costs for the recordings and as compensation keeping the recordings safe. Somewhat surprisingly, he says that some of the masters aren't very good.
Mahan has handed over the tapes to the police until ownership can be determined. As of yesterday, he hadn't been arrested, but he was being investigated for possible extortion while Jay Z's reps had filed a grand larceny complaint.
Meanwhile, Jay Z producer Just Blaze weighed in by mocking Mahan in a series of tweets. He accused Mahan of incompetency, saying that he had accidentally mixed in mono, ruined tape transfers, attempted to start fights and more. He further clarified by Mahan's role was as engineer, not producer and claimed that he had digital backups of all the masters in question.
Read the Twitter spree below.
Chauncey stayed effing up. Big part of the reason Hip and I brought in Guru.
— Just Blaze (@JustBlaze) April 21, 2014Ill never forget the day Chaunce stepped to Duro wanting to fight lol. This guy ruined every tape transfer for the Dynasty Album.
— Just Blaze (@JustBlaze) April 21, 2014Duro calls him out on it. He runs over to Soundtrack studios, comes in the room like "yo Duro I ain't no bitch" takes his jacket off.
— Just Blaze (@JustBlaze) April 21, 2014Me and Duro just looked at him. Blankest of stares.. And went back to work.
— Just Blaze (@JustBlaze) April 21, 2014If you listen to Bleek's version of "is that your b***h" you'll notice it's in mono. Why? Bc Chauncey. Lol.
— Just Blaze (@JustBlaze) April 21, 2014If u listen to "get your mind right" from Dynasty, You'll notice all the choruses after the first one fall in the wrong places. Bc Chauncey
— Just Blaze (@JustBlaze) April 21, 2014We had to re record "streets is talking" vox. Why? Bc Chauncey.
— Just Blaze (@JustBlaze) April 21, 2014The Dynasty intro sample flanges the entire time.. Guess why!? Chauncey.
— Just Blaze (@JustBlaze) April 21, 2014We eventually got tired of it. I randomly ended up doing a session with this new engineer who called himself @Young_Guru..
— Just Blaze (@JustBlaze) April 21, 2014He was young, understood the sound, and knew what he was doing. Brought him in on a Hov session as a test and it clicked. Rest is history.
— Just Blaze (@JustBlaze) April 21, 2014Oh. And I have backups of just about all of those files Chauncey tried to extort for. Dummy.
— Just Blaze (@JustBlaze) April 21, 2014Last thing @ind3lible and I did before we shut down baseline was a digital back up of EVERYTHING that was ever done there. EVERYTHING.
— Just Blaze (@JustBlaze) April 21, 2014They reside in a fallout shelter in an undisclosed location.
— Just Blaze (@JustBlaze) April 21, 2014Guru just called and reminded me of the time Chauncey tried to kick him out of the studio. He was amazing,that guy.
— Just Blaze (@JustBlaze) April 21, 2014I'm not "blasting" dude. Saw funny story that brought back some memories. bad as some of those situations were, I'm happy i can laugh @ them
— Just Blaze (@JustBlaze) April 22, 2014OMG yes! Forgot about that! All off beat. "@ferotracks: @JustBlaze were the hooks on "This Can't Be Life" Bc of Chauncey? Lol"
— Just Blaze (@JustBlaze) April 22, 2014
