Jay-Z goes back to his roots with subtle name change

Jay-Z is going back to his roots, in more ways than one.

On March 18, the "Izzo (H.O.V.A.)" singer announced that he would be reuniting with The Roots on stage for the first time in over a decade, performing with them at their two-day Roots Picnic festival in Philadelphia in May. 

The reunion comes in time for the 30th anniversary of his seminal debut album Reasonable Doubt, for which he has also changed his name.

Ahead of the celebration, Jay-Z reverted his name back to JÄY-Z, adding the umlaut that previously appeared on his moniker (his real name is Shawn Carter) when he first introduced himself to the music scene.

The umlaut now appears in his name in the announcement from The Roots that he will be headlining their festival with them, as well as on major streaming platforms like Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, and Tidal, of which he previously owned a majority stake.

This isn't the first time JÄY-Z has made tweaks to his name; in 2013, having already dropped the umlaut from his name, he also removed the hyphen in time for the release of Magna Carta Holy Grail, before adding it back in four years later.

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Speaking in a Big Boy's Neighborhood interview at the time, he explained: "The hyphen was really big back in the day. It's not useful anymore," noting that "you change with the times."

However, it appeared he found it useful again in 2017, when he hyphenated his name again ahead of the release of his album 4:44.

"'Jay Z' is now a relic of the past, consigned to the dustbin of history. In its place stands JAY-Z, now with the hyphen back in its place and the whole name in all-caps," a statement issued to Entertainment Weekly at the time read.

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JÄY-Z, 56, has been married to Beyonce, 44, since 2008, and the couple are parents to daughter Blue Ivy, 14, and twins Rumi and Sir, who will be nine years old in June.

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As for the couple's kids' names, the doting dad previously told Gayle King during an appearance on CBS Mornings in 2023 that "Blue" simply derived from 'blueberry," which he and Beyoncé had taken to calling her before she was born. "It just was natural. We just took the 'berry' off and called her Blue," he said.

And as for the twins' names, he said on the Rap Radar podcast shortly after they were born: "Rumi is our favorite poet, so it was for our daughter," adding that Sir stemmed from the seven-year-old's gentlemanly composure when he was born. "Sir was like, man, come out the gate. He carries himself like that."