Jay Z has been in the news a lot recently, and now that he’s changed his name, he’s making sure he stays in the news.
From left: JAY-Z, Barack Obama, Bruce Springsteen (photo via NY Daily News)
What’s he been up to?
To begin with, former president Barack Obama gave him a loving induction into the Songwriter’s Hall Of Fame, saying he and Jay Z understand each other.
“We know what it’s like to not have a father around,” Obama said. “We know what it’s like not to come from and to know people who didn’t get the same breaks we did, so we try to prop open those doors of opportunity so it’s a little easier for those who come up behind us to succeed as well.”
Which takes us to how Jay Z donated a bunch of money to bail fathers out of prison on Father’s Day, saying we have to do away with the “inhumane practices” of the bail industry.
“As a father with a growing family, it’s the least I can do, but philanthropy is not a long fix…,” he said in his essay for Time. “We can’t fix our broken criminal justice system until we take on the exploitative bail industry.”
And of course, his bae, Beyoncé, gave birth to twins.
And now, he’s changing his name again, according to Time.
In 2013 when he came out with Magna Carta Holy Grail, he dropped the hyphen, going from Jay-Z to Jay Z. But now, as he prepares to release his album 4:44 on June 30, he’s altering his stage name.
He is now calling himself JAY-Z, exhuming the hyphen and capitalizing his whole name.
So now can Jay Z, Jay-Z, and JAY-Z all be inducted into the Hall Of Fame?
Below, check out a preview of JAY-Z’s forthcoming album:
