Photo by Colin Kerrigan

Yesterday, it was reported that Jay Z was the target of an alleged extortion plot over master recordings that were previously thought to be lost. Now, engineer Chauncey Mahan, the accused extorter who worked with Hov from 1998 to 2002, has denied the charges to TMZ.

According to Mahan, Def Jam asked him to hold onto the master recordings because no one else was paying attention. He described Jay Z circa 2002 as "a stupid kid smoking blunts," and said he'd repeatedly contacted Jay's people over the last 10 years to inform them he was in possession of the recordings. He was blown off until asking for $100,000 last week. Currently, the recordings are being held by the LAPD so that proper ownership can be established.

As TMZ reports, the tapes hold the masters for 1999's Vol. 3... Life and Times of S. Carter and 2000's The Dynasty: Roc La Familia. They also report that "Chauncey says some of the masters sound awful."

As All Hip Hop points out, yesterday, producer Just Blaze tweeted a number of statements regarding Mahan's alleged incompetence as an engineer:

Here's "Streets Is Talking":