From new rules to a new name, the man born Shawn Carter is keeping the public on its toes. Jay has reportedly switched up his stage moniker by dropping the hyphen from Jay-Z. Going forward Mr. Carter's rap title will be written as Jay Z, so says Billboard editor Joe Levy.
Roc Nation handed down news of the punctuation change, according to Levy's tweet Wednesday night (July 17). The label hasn't made an official announcement, likely because it's old news. When asked, rep Jana Fleishman told Complex.com, "Dude...We haven't used the hyphen since 2010."
Starting with the unconventional release of Magna Carta Holy Grail, Hov is holding strong to his "out with the old, in with the new" attitude and it's paying off — big time. MCHG is the No. 1 album in the country (and across the pond), the Roc Nation roster has delivered three albums since June all of which debuted atop the Billboard 200, and he just launched the Legends of Summer tour in Toronto last night.
The 43-year-old and Justin Timberlake performed a sold-out show for 45,000 at the city's Rogers Centre. According to the Toronto Sun, JT's and Jay Z's sets featured an "impressively enormous stage" plus "built-in video screens" and a 14-piece band. The duo treated audience members to a hybrid of new tracks off their respective releases and classic joints, for what the Brooklyn MC predicted would be a "special" night.
After Legends of Summer wraps up in August, Jay will be back on the road for a European tour starting on October 3 in Manchester, U.K.

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(Photo: C.Smith/ WENN.com)