Former Rocafella Records Videographer Narrates How He Got Almost a Million Dollars from Jay Z

Veteran videographer, Choke No Joke used to be signed to Rocafella Records back in the day, and he handled most of their video recordings of events. In a recent interview, he spoke on how a misunderstanding with Jay Z led to Jay sending his boys to check him, which ended up being more physical than it should have been, leaving Choke with a broken jaw. And in other not to get into a nasty lawsuit, Jay decided to settle him financially.

Read Choke No Joke's narrative of this incidence below...speaking about the first time he actually films Jay Z at a concert.

"He seem like 'who's this dude keep jumping everywhere and filming. So, he go over to Ty Ty, right....Ty Ty go over to Dame. Dame...yo, he work for us, he down with Rocafella...Ty Ty goes back to Jay. Ty Ty goes to Shawn Arnold after that. He said something to him, and I see Shawn Arnold like...he gave him the shoulder like 'do whatever you gotta do.' The show ends. Jay clearly tells Ty Ty, 'yo, get that tape.' Umm! As we leaving the show, me and Dame's walking out. As we walking out, we the last two. Ty Ty jumps in front of the doorway, right. And when he jumps in front of the doorway, I just look at him like, 'what the fuck you gon do?' And he like 'GET HIM!' He tells his boys 'get him.'...Dudes start swinging, they try to jump me, whatever. Dame is standing right there whatever, I'm bobbing, weaving a couple of punches or whatever. One of the dude go and try to kick the camera out my hand, and when he did that I moved it, and when he moves, his foot went like this...it fractured my jaw...when he did that I went and dropped the camera. Ty Ty runs and snatches the camera and dips out the backdoor."

Choke ended up getting his jaw wired at the hospital, and when he got out of admission, he went in search of Jay Z to settle the issue. 

"At this time, Jay is on probation for the Un stabbing. So, me being a street dude, am not going to go...for me to get millions, my lawyer told me I had to press charges. Back then, me being...code of the street and everything, I ain't testifying. And I didn't really want to see him go to jail. You know what I'm saying. He's still Jay Z. He is still one of my favorite rappers. You know what I'm saying. So, I didn't press no charges. I called John Meneilly, and I say, 'yo something got to give.' He said 'Yo, Jay gon take care of you. What you want?' I told him a number, they came back with another number, we met somewhere in the middle, Jay paid me, I left it alone. That was it"

After he said this, one of the interviewers asked if his first number he gave was a million, and he said yes. He probably got paid around 200-400k. That's a lot of money. I guess that was really to keep him quiet, and he wasn't meant to speak on this issue ever again. But he did in this recent interview with the Breakfast Club crew on Power 105.1 FM. That part was cut out. The only reason we able to watch that cut part is because, being a videograper, Choke also had his camera set up for the interview.  

Watch the uncut part of the interview below. 

The Day Damon Dash Was Beat Up in Paris

Back in the late 90s and early 2000s of the Rocafella days, a lot of drama went down and it is interesting to hear some of those stories once in a while. Veteran film maker, Choke No Joke was signed to Rocafella Records at some point and he recently narrated how a thug in Paris once bloodied Damon Dash's head.

"What happened was. Umm! We was in Paris. We was doing the international launch for Roca Wear. And we was on the press run. We was going to do radio and the driver led us out on like, on the worst block in Paris. Where dudes is...women are prostituting and dudes is selling drugs. So, we get out the car, as we walking through the block, you know, I'm filming. You know, before we get out the car, I seen this chick and I already started filming. I just popped a new tape in and I started filming. And this girl, she saw me film her, and she just like dipped. So, we get out the car, we walking, I'm still filming. This French dude...African dude... he come running down on me, he grabs the camera. And when he grabbed the camera, am like pulling it from him. But I know where he coming from cos I seen the girl. You know what I'm saying. So I got it. So, I'm pulling the camera from him to tell him like, 'chill, don't worry about it, I'll erase the tape or you could take the tape.' You know, it was a fresh tape. Dame. We all know Dame was boxing at this time. Training, everything. Dame finds this as the perfect time to test out his skills. So, Dame swings on the dude...the dude weaved it, came back reached in his back pocket, you know the black jack that has the metal ball on the tip, when you whip it it stand? He pulled that out, he whipped it, he caught Dame right on the top of his head, BOOM! And Dame just dropped to one knee. And he was all dizzy and everything."


Choke later narrated how he ran to the nearest store to drop his camera so he could help Damon Dash, but that he couldn't get back out of the store because the owners had locked it cos of the fight outside. And by the time he found a way out, Dame and his Rocafella crew were no longer at the scene of the fight. He told this story because Dame had recently told his side of the story, and said Choke actually ran away instead of helping him fight the French thug. You can watch the full video below...he narrates the story around 38 minutes into the video.