With his franchise player retiring his throwback jersey, Damon Dash is now forced to put up or shut up. Can Roc-A-Fella Records survive without their biggest star? They better ’cause this CEO loves the dough.

Pretty soon, when we talk about Roc-A-Fella going from platinum to gold, we might not just be talking about their jewelry.

With the eight-year-old label’s co-owner and cornerstone Jay-Z saying “Th-th-th-th-th-th-that’s all, folks” on the music-making front, the company’s record sales seem like they’re set to dip. (And we don’t mean like Cam’ron and co.) Aside from Jay, Diplomat prez Cam’ron and the less-than-prolific DJ Clue, nobody on the Roc roster has ever sold a million records. The act with the best apparent earning potential, Beanie Sigel, is standing trial on charges of attempted murder and federal gun law violations.

This is where that brash, trash-talking, Armadale-bottle-popping, music-video-scene-stealing Dame Dash steps in. Jay’s Roc-A-Fella partner has been busy recruiting the likes of Ol’ Dirty Bastard, M.O.P. and Twista in hopes that his label can continue to live in the manner it’s become accustomed to.

But like Jay, Dash has other interests besides rap. First and foremost, he wants to take his Nike Air-shod foot and stick it up Hollywood’s ass. While preparing to direct the sequel to 2002’s State Property, he recently put up a couple of million dollars to fund the drama The Woodsman, starring Mos Def, Eve, Kevin Bacon and Benjamin Bratt. And he’s currently in the process of acquiring the rights to The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things, based on JT LeRoy’s series of stories, and preparing a movie project, Divas, with Annette Bening and Don Cheadle.

Dash admits that he and his bosom bud Jay-Z don’t hang out as much as they once did, and that Hov’s retirement means a big change gon’ come for the Roc. But don’t think Dash is done talking there. He also tells XXL the scoop about Beyoncé changing Hov’s life, the game plan should Beanie go to jail and why the Roc doesn’t have what he considers true mass appeal.

XXL: You’ve been working on film projects for a minute now. And Jay says that after he drops his next LP, he wants to try his hand in Hollywood. How come the two of you never got together to do a vehicle for Jay?

Dash: Who, Jay-Z? Are you serious? He barely likes being in his own videos. Getting him to act? Difficult. That was never something that, to me, he expressed a big interest in. Whenever I go into movies, I tell him about them and I’m like, “It’s there for you if you want to do it.” But he never really showed up to do anything. That’s why it’s Dash Films as opposed to Roc-A-Fella Films. I would love to do that with Jay, but it’s hard to get Jay to move if he doesn’t want to do something.

Jay says he wants The Black Album to be his last album. You would probably know better than anybody: Is this record really going to be Jigga’s swan song?

I think so… For a while… Who knows, man? Jay’s been retiring since Reasonable Doubt. But this one, I believe it. Just ’cause of what he’s got in his life. We never was broke, but we sold some of the company and we made a lot of money. So it’s not like nobody has to work. At this point, Jay raps for the love of rapping. He ain’t gotta do nothing he really doesn’t want. He’s been successful. He’s made a lot of money.