$20 million worth of Roc-A-Fella Records master recordings are at the center of a police investigation, according to TMZ.
The story begins in 2002, when Roc-A-Fella Records master recordings from 1998 to 2002 vanished. The recordings were thought to have been lost forever.
On Friday, April 18, a former Jay Z producer named Chauncey Mahan contacted Live Nation, the company that partnered with the rapper to create Roc Nation.
Mahan said he was in possession of a large amount of the recordings. He told Live Nation he was either going to put them up for auction or they could buy them from him for a $100,000.
LN agreed to buy the recordings for $75,000 and arranged to meet Mahan at his Northridge, California storage facility, where the masters were being stored. LN informed the LAPD of the proposed transaction. When Mahan arrived he was detained by police.
Mahan agreed to be taken in for questioning and allowed the LAPD to hold onto the recordings until a judge can decide who's the rightful owner.
Jay Z's lawyers have filed a grand larceny complaint. Because Live Nation is based in Beverly Hills, California, the police department there is investigating extortion allegations.
Mahan has not been arrested, but that could change pending the outcome of the investigation and the judge's decision.
**UPDATE** April 22
Chauncey Mahan is fighting back against allegations that he tried to extort money from Live Nation for Jay Z's master recordings.
Mahan told TMZ that Hov was "was a stupid kid smoking blunts" who couldn't keep track of his property. The masters in question included the albums Vol. 3... Life and Times of S. Carter and The Dynasty: Roc La Familia.
According to Mahan he did Jay a favor by holding onto the recordings because nobody else was doing it. The producer claims that he repeatedly reached out to Jay's camp over the last decade to let them know he was in possession of the material, but was blown off.
Mahan finally asked Live Nation for a $100,000 "storage fee" last week as compensation for keeping the recordings safe for the past 12 years
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