Is Damon Dash Today's Andy Warhol?

Roc-A-Fella Records co-founder Damon Dash has fallen from grace and reinvented himself as the host of a Tribeca salon where artists and artsy people do artistic things and smoke weed. Does that mean he's the new Andy Warhol?

The Observer reports that after falling out with Jay-Z, leaving Roc-A-Fella, and losing his marriage, his fortune, and his homes, Dash has turned a four-story warehouse at 172 Duane Street into a creative center that might be his generation's answer to Warhol's Factory. Rapper and actor Mos Def described the space, dubbed DD172, as "a cross between early Hitsville, Andy Warhol's Factory and a little bit of the Algonquin roundtable. But it's something completely different."

Regulars say the arts hangout allows them to escape from the outside world — which Dash describes as "wack world." "Everything is wack world out there," said Dash. "Every corporate infrastructure — it's like we're a bunch of circles trying to fit in square pegs, and it doesn't work. And that's what everyone here feels. Like, I don't fit in that world. Because the way it's built, only a certain amount of people will win, and everyone else will lose and get exploited." So the self-described "pretentious hippie" established a business model in which he's a 50 percent partner in anything created inside DD172, whether it's the first-floor gallery, the online-content-production company Creative Control, the planned culture magazine America Knew, or the web-design firm VNGRD79. "Look, you don't come out of financial troubles over night," he said. "But, I guess, if this is financial trouble, I like being broke."

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By Ben Muessig in Arts & Entertainment on January 14, 2010 3:30 PM

Comments [rss]

jen

Not even close to Warhol. Who the fuck is Damon Dash?

HBHB

I know people just say this all the time but I literally just choked on my coffee when reading that headline.

zincink

AHAHHA HWWWWhat?!

No sorry please try again.

NannyState

Did Damon Dash also have a snap implanted in his scalp so his wig doesn't slip off?

Snoopy

As I was shopping in Tiffany's back in 1972 for a pair of diamond earrings for my wife I spotted Andy in the store, and I believe you are right. His hair looked a little bit strange. Although I didn't notice the clip.

Snoopy

Just look at their eyes. One guy is overly wide awake and the other one is nodding out. Now tell me who has the vision?

Snoopy

Dorothy Parker must be rolling around in her dust.

NannyState

Dash Snow must be rolling in his own semen.

airtech1

Dash, the pretentious hippie who went to the Dwight School. Just a totally radical dude.

korper

Why, oh why, every time more than 2 artists gather in one place more than 2 times, does an article need to be written about how it's the next Algonquin, the next Warhol Factory, etc.? Next thing you know the hipsters descend upon it, & no matter how cool the gathering may have been, it's now insufferably crowded & dull. When I start hosting my own "salon," all participants will be sworn to secrecy under pain of death.

BDS=(Boycott.Divest.Sanction)

that was funny.

Everything is wack world out there..Because the way it's built, only a certain amount of people will win, and everyone else will lose and get exploited.

and then

established a business model in which he's a 50 percent partner in anything created inside DD172

then name check for the Algonquin round table is funny too.