The rapper, producer and entrepreneur formerly known by the moniker “Jay-Z” has decided to drop the hyphen and be known instead as “Jay Z.”
The stylistic change ended the hyphen’s 19-year life as the punctuation mark to separate the two parts of Shawn Carter’s stage name, according to the Huffington Post’s obituary.
The hyphen’s existence has reportedly been on the rocks for a few years, ever since it disappeared in the credits of Jay Z’s “Watch the Throne” video. The hyphen was present on the album cover for his 2009 album The Blueprint 3 but nowhere else on the album, the Huffington Post reports.
Joe Levy tweeted on Thursday night that “according to his label,” Jay had removed the hyphen.
His publicist, Jana Fleischman, released a statement saying, “Dude…We haven’t used the hyphen since 2010,” according to the Atlantic Wire.
Since everyone apparently missed the change, despite the hyphen’s absence on iTunes, this announcement means everyone else will (finally) start typing Jay’s name correctly.
Jay Z and wife Beyoncé welcomed first child Blue Ivy in January.
Image: WikiCommons
