Jay-Z has added an umlaut to his name, rebranding himself as JAŸ-Z for his upcoming headlining performance
Jay-Z has 99 issues, but his name isn't one of them. In anticipation of his impending reunion with The Roots, the rapper slightly changed his name. On the billing for the annual Roots Picnic in Philadelphia on May 30, he added an umlaut to his title, making it reads JAŸ-Z.
Additionally, Jay (real name Shawn Carter) added the diacritical mark to his stage name on popular music streaming services like YouTube, Spotify, Apple Music, and Tidal.
The 56-year-old seems to be keeping in touch with his roots by changing his name. After all, an umlaut appeared on the covers of some of his earlier songs, such as his 1996 breakthrough album Reasonable Doubt and its hit singles "Ain't No N---a," "Can't Knock the Hustle," and "Feelin' It."
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However, Beyoncé's husband has previously experimented with punctuation. He famously removed the hyphen from his name in 2013.
“The hyphen was really big back in the day. It’s not useful anymore," in an interview with Big Boy's Neighborhood, he clarified. "You change with the times."
"I had umlauts over one of the letters," the Grammy winner added. "I removed the umlaut, too."
But in time for his 2017 album 4:44, the hyphen was brought back.
"'Jay Z' is now a relic of the past, consigned to the dustbin of history," at that point, Entertainment Weekly received a statement from his team. "In its place stands JAY-Z, now with the hyphen back in its place and the whole name in all-caps."
What about the unusual name of his 13-year-old daughter, Blue Ivy Carter? Jay has an answer for that as well.
“We were calling her Blueberry. Like, ‘Look at the little blueberry.’ It was like a nickname,” when he appeared on CBS Mornings in 2023, he informed Gayle King. “It just was natural. We just took the 'berry' off and called her Blue.”
When naming their 7-year-old twins Rumi Carter and Sir Carter, Jay and Bey also went against the grain.
"Rumi is our favorite poet, so it was for our daughter," in 2017, he clarified on the Rap Radar podcast that his son "came out" as gentlemanly at birth. "Sir was like, man, come out the gate. He carries himself like that."
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