5 Ways To Spell Jay Z

When news broke that Jay Z was dropping the hyphen from his name, it came as a bit of a surprise. Sure, he's gone through his fair share of nicknames, but he's never asked the press to adhere to a name change like Diddy or Snoop Lion (now Snoop Zilla). Here are five subtle name changes he's experimented with through the course of his career. -- Ronald Metellus

5. With A Hyphen

Via Def Jam

First Appearance: Circa 1988. "Know the shit I don't write be the illest shit that's ever been recited in the game/ Word to the hyphen in my name/ J-A-Y, Dash, Hoffa"

Last Appearance: The Blueprint 3... kind of. While Blueprint 3 was his last album to acknowledge the hyphen, it still makes guest appearances. You can find it on Drake's Nothing Was The Same album credits--Jay has a feature spot on "Poundcake/ Paris Morton Music 2."

Rating: 3 Hyphens out of 5. You can't go wrong with the old standard, but the hyphen made Napster searches tricky so I'm docking it two points.

4. With Umlauts

Warner Bros. / Via news.rapgenius.com

First Appearance: We saw the umlauts over the "Y" way back in the summer of 1996, on the cover of Reasonable Doubt. For at least five months, Jay was spelling his name with umlauts. This had no bearing on the pronunciation of Jay-Z, but it was definitely a thing.

Last Appearance: The Space Jam Soundtrack (November 1996)

Rating: 5 Hyphens out of 5. I'm happy as long as I get to do Space Jam research. The umlauts were a style over substance move on par with wearing Tom Ford tuxedos for no reason. C'mön, and jäm.

3. With A Strikethrough

Via Def Jam

First Appearance: Magna Carta Holy Grail promotional artwork and album cover.

Last Appearance: Still active.

Rating: 4 Hyphens out of 5. Lately the dash has been occupying more space in Jay’s name, which is a little strange after The Hyphen Decision. On the other hand, it looks really fucking cool.

2. Without A Hyphen

First Appearance. Alerting the press about the hyphen-drop wasn't the humblest thing to do, but we weren't following his lead: two years before the decision, the id3 tags for Watch The Throne read JAY Z.

Last Appearance: Still active.

Rating: 0 Hyphens out of 5 The new look is cleaner, but this rating system simply can not accommodate it.

1. Sideways, Sorta With An "N"

images.rapgenius.com

First Appearance: October 2nd, 2001. The artwork for Blueprint single "Girls, Girls, Girls" has some amazing graphic, graphic, graphic design.

Last Appearance: October 2nd, 2001. (Still active at some record stores).

Rating: 4 Hyphens out of 5. The hyphen almost turns that "N" back into a "Z," and it deserves some respect for that.