Of course, with all the business deals that Jay-z has been doing it’s only natural that people speculate on his every move.  It was being rumored a little while ago that Jay-Z would be making some kind of negotiation with Sony Music Entertainment, and it has since been confirmed as true by Jay himself.

The rap mogul/businessman told Billboard of the deal, "Sony is Roc Nation. That’s where Roc Nation’s going through."

He was asked about the distribution deal he made with Atlantic Records for his album, “The Blueprint 3” but Hova says that it was just a one-time thing, solely for his album.

He explains, “That’s pretty much just for this specific album. Roc Nation — we’re experts in marketing and making records. But we do distribution deals," he explained. "On this one, we’re working directly with the Atlantic staff, which is Julie [Greenwald], Lyor [Cohen], Kevin [Liles] and Kyse [Mike Kyser]. For the rest of the Roc Nation artists, we did a distribution deal with Sony."

You can expect to see Jay’s album in stores on September 11th of this year. This man makes so many business deals! He seems to know what he’s doing because the man is wealthy!

Image: Bauer-Griffin

The music video for Jay-Z’s single, “D.O.A (Death of Auto-Tune)” premiered right after the 2009 BET Awards on Sunday. Hova plays  the cool Hip Hop boss in the video who runs everything. Suits him well, I think! It’s a rather simple music video, but likeable. Making cameo appearances in the video are actor Harvey Keitel and NBA star player, LeBron James. This song is off of Jay’s album, “The Blueprint 3” which has an aimed release date for September 11th. The controversial lyrics in the song have gotten a lot of rappers talking.

DJ Khaled had this to say, “It’s an amazing record. Jay-Z is one of the best in the game. Shout to Jay-Z for shouting me out [on the record]. I salute that, you feel me? I mean, music is music, you know what I’m saying? He ain’t dissing nobody, he’s just saying it’s overdone. He shouted brothers like T-Pain that’s supposed to do it.”

While Soulja Boy said, “That’s a crazy track. I know it’s gon’ stir up a lot of controversy, but Jay-Z is one of the best so a lot of people gon be tuned into it, man. I don’t know what to say about that one. If people [will] stop using it, I don’t know, man? T-Pain, his whole thing is Auto-Tune, so you asking you think it’ll end T-Pain’s career?”

Rap star, Jay-Z attended the 2009 BET Awards last night, where he performed his new controversial hit  single, “D.O.A. (Death of Auto-Tune)” off of his much anticipated album, “The Blueprint 3.” He did a great job, as did his wife Beyoncé during her performance of “Ave Maria” and “Angel” in a tribute to Michael Jackson.

I loved how they kept showing Bey enjoying herself while her husband performed. It was too cute! At the end of the song, Jay-Z made a shout-out to MJ, the King of Pop, who died this week at age 50. He says, “Rest in peace to the king.” Check out the video below:

The latest buzz going around is that Jay-Z’s first released single off of his upcoming album, “The Blueprint 3” will be featuring Canadian rap newcomer, Drake. The song is supposedly titled, “Off That” and it’s said to be a hot track.

DJ Skee, who leaked the info about “D.O.A” as well as this, says, "I don’t want to really ruin the surprise. I mean it’s Jay, he’s killing it. Jay sounds pretty incredible, man."

The album, “The Blueprint 3” is set to be released on September 11tth of this year and is being heavily produced by fellow rap star, Kanye West. The album has actually been said to have a similar sound to Kanye’s album “808s & Heartbreak” which features hits like “Love Lockdown” and “Heartless.” Separating these two albums is the fact that Jay-Z wanted absolutely no auto-tune on his album, while Kanye’s is comprised of all auto-tune.

Can’t wait!!

Image: Bauer-Griffin

Tons of rappers have come out to speak about Jay-Z’s newest released track, “D.O.A. (Death of Auto-tune).” The track slams artists who are using auto-tune saying that only artists like Kanye West, T-Pain and Lil  Wayne should be doing it.

DJ Khaled said of the track, “It’s an amazing record. Jay-Z is one of the best in the game. Shout to Jay-Z for shouting me out [on the record]. I salute that, you feel me? I mean, music is music, you know what I’m saying? He ain’t dissing nobody, he’s just saying it’s overdone. He shouted brothers like T-Pain that’s supposed to do it.”

Soulja Boy seems to think that Jay was telling everyone not to use it. He says, “That’s a crazy track. I know it’s gon’ stir up a lot of controversy, but Jay-Z is one of the best so a lot of people gon be tuned into it, man. I don’t know what to say about that one. If people [will] stop using it, I don’t know, man? T-Pain, his whole thing is Auto-Tune, so you asking you think it’ll end T-Pain’s career?”

T-Pain even says that the release of this song has made his label decided to push up the release of his album. It was originally supposed to be released in September of next year, but they moved the date to November of this year. Craziness! He also says that Jay-Z’s track has made him want to continue doing auto-tune.  It’s amazing to see how they feel about it. I personally think it’s a great track and I agree that auto-tune should be limited. When you just start using it for no reason and you don’t do it well, it loses it’s point.

Image: Zuma Press

As if the 2009 BET Awards didn’t seem awesome enough, Jay-Z has been added to the line up of performers. With the anticipated release of his album “Blueprint 3” and the release of his new album “D.O.A” I’m sure he seemed like an obvious choice.  Wife, Beyoncé has already been confirmed for the awards show along with Kanye West, Ne-Yo, Maxwell and The-Dream.

Tune in to see the 2009 BET Awards on June 28th at 8pm EST!

In other news, Jay-Z explained the recent growth of his hair on new York’s Hot 97 recently. He said, “I started [working on Blueprint 3] last year and it’s getting really bad. It’s terrible. But I think for the art, I can live with it. A lot of girls kind of like it. So I’m trying to hold onto it. I’m trying to elongate the album.”

I was wondering what the hair growth was all about. Turns out he’s just been too busy to get a haircut! I wonder if Beyoncé’s liking.

Image: Bauer-Griffin

When he released his newest hot track, “D.O.A. (Death of Auto-Tune)”, Jay-Z wasn’t sure how rapper, T-Pain would feel about his lyrics considering he uses his name in the song. Jay says that if T-Pain had been insulted by the track, that he would have been “cool” with it.

He said, "If T-Pain got to feel a little brunt behind that, then I’m cool with that. I’m all about the culture. It’s bigger than the politics. If T-Pain felt like he wanted to never talk to me again, I would have been cool with that."

T-Pain appeared to feel the opposite of insulted. During the 2009 Summer Jam in which Jay-Z got up on stage to perform the song, T-Pain was up on stage with him as a show of support.

This came as a total surprise to Jay-Z who says he had no idea that T-Pain would jump on stage. "That was crazy, ’cause I didn’t know where he came from. I remember the concert T.I. had, and 50 Cent went onstage. That wasn’t planned — same thing! I look, and I see somebody to my right, and I swear I thought it was a fan coming up to me to hug me. ‘Cause I didn’t see who it was. I thought it was some cool, rock-star stuff. And then I saw him move again, and I looked back. I guess [T-Pain] wanted to get close to me."

Though the gesture by T-Pain was fun and exciting, Jay says that it was slightly weird, "It was a little awkward, but it was cool. He didn’t mean any harm. He’s just embracing the record. You shouldn’t be confused by the message. I’m not saying Auto-Tune is wack. But leave that for them [T-Pain, Lil Wayne and Kanye West, the artists Jay said used it artistically]; it’s not for everybody. That’s how you stagnate hip-hop. You listen to the radio, and every single has Auto-Tune. So we have to get rid of that part."

Huh. Well, it’s nice that T-Pain can really embrace it like that because really Jay’s defending them and trying to others from going auto-tune crazy. Seriously, the radio could use a little less auto-tune.

Image: Bauer-Griffin

Rap genius, Jay-Z made a surprise appearance at the 2009 Summer Jam in East Rutherford, New Jersey. He performed his newly released single, “D.O.A. (Death of Auto-Tune)” with T-Pain coming out and standing on the stage with him. 

Jay-Z spoke about the anti-auto-tune song, "The guys who did it, did it great. T-Pain, he does great melodies. If you listen to Kanye, great melodies. If you listen to [West's] ‘Say You Will’ or ‘Heartless,’ great melodies. [Lil Wayne and T-Pain's] ‘Lollipop’ was a fantastic melody. Everybody can’t do it. Let them guys do it. They got their little niche, let’s move on. That’s just my opinion. I don’t know if everybody feels the same way."

I’ll tell ya, this song is growing on me. I’m starting to really like it. Check out Jay-Z’s performance of “D.O.A”  below!

Funkmaster Flex debuted this new Jay-Z song, “D.O.A” on the Hot 97 yesterday. Those of you haven’t heard it, you can listen to the track below. The letters stand for “Death of Auto-Tune” and it’s a song basically trashing all the new rappers who’ve decided to computerize their voice these days. The track is off of his upcoming album, “Blueprint 3”, which is supposed to be released on September 11 of this year.

I like the idea of the song, really. I’m getting so tired of hearing all this auto-tune that Lil Wayne, T-Pain and others have been producing. It’s enough now. But I’ve got to say that I’m not completely loving of how the song turned out. The singing part in the song is just so not great. If he had fixed that and made the beat a tiny bit stronger, I think the song would be perfect. I love the smack talk that goes on in this song, though. I’m glad he said something about this auto-tune crap. I loved how he said “You’re T-Paining too much”! Listen to it below!

Jay-Z stole the #1 spot this year on The Source magazine’s Power 30 List! Why did he get the top spot? According to the magazine, it’s because of his leader ship, his knowledge as a business man as well as several of his projects including Live Nation, Rocawear and partly owning the New Jersey Nets.

Good for you, Jay! Both he and his wife Beyoncé are seen as powerful figures. She was just named the #4 most powerful celebrity by Forbes!

Destiny’s Child member, LeToya Luckett is also featured in The Source’s latest issue. The title of the article is called “Say My Name” with subtitle “LeToya Luckett wants all eyes on her as she preps for the steamy summer release of her second album, ‘Lady Love’.” That’s great!

If you’re interested, make sure you grab an issue of the magazine because it’s available on newsstands right now!

Image: Bauer-Griffin