Jay-Z has quietly tweaked his stage name again, adding an umlaut to become JAŸ-Z in preparation for his upcoming reunion with The Roots at the annual Roots Picnic in Philadelphia on 30 May.
The change isn’t just temporary.
The rapper, 56, whose real name is Shawn Carter, has also updated his name across major streaming platforms including Spotify, YouTube, Apple Music and Tidal to reflect the new punctuation.
And for long-time fans, the distinct mark will ring a bell, the umlaut featured prominently on the cover art for his 1996 debut album Reasonable Doubt and its early singles, making this less of a reinvention and more of a homecoming.
It’s not the first time Jay-Z has played around with his name.
In 2013 he dropped the hyphen entirely, explaining his thinking in a Big Boy’s Neighborhood interview at the time.
“The hyphen was really big back in the day. It’s not useful anymore,” he said.
“You change with the times.” He also mentioned that an umlaut had once featured in his name before he removed it: “I had umlauts over one of the letters. I removed the umlaut, too.”
The hyphen made its return for his 2017 album 4:44, accompanied by a typically direct statement from his team.
“‘Jay Z’ is now a relic of the past, consigned to the dustbin of history,” the statement read. “In its place stands JAY-Z, now with the hyphen back in its place and the whole name in all-caps.”
Now, it seems, the umlaut is back to join it.
