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A couple of years ago Scott Storch was considered one of the top music producers around, along with a mansion on an exclusive Miami island and dating A-list celebrities. He’s produced hits for Beyonce (“Naughty Girl”), 50 Cent (“Candy Shop”), and Christina Aguilera (he produced seven tracks off her Stripped album), charging upwards of $100,000 per song. He earned a reported $70 million in 2004 alone, according to Rolling Stone magazine.
The father of two, 12-year old Steven and 2 year old Jalen Daniel, is rarely seen in public nowadays, trading his once flamboyant “Liberace” lifestyle for a more reclusive one after of string on career missteps. Most recently he and fellow producer Timbaland had a public feud over who was the better producer, with Timbaland calling him “just the piano man.” In 2006 he traded jabs with Aguilera over her reluctance to pay for a private jet to fly him out to produce her album Back to Basics. He signed Brooke Hogan to his Storch Music Company label and produced eight tracks on her debut album Undiscovered that was largely ignored by the music buying public. And his efforts to help then-girlfriend Paris Hilton break into the music business proved equally futile.
But now it seems the 34-year-old former member of The Roots has fallen on hard times. For a short time last month a warrant was issued for his arrest when he failed to show up to court in a child-support case. Mr. Storch, who’s trying to obtain refinancing on his $10.5 million mansion, owes half a million dollars in property taxes.
