Roc (and Warner) Boys in the Building

Of course you've heard by now that Jay is officially a free agent, having given the salute to Def Jam Recordings, where he served briefly as president and released the bulk of his catalog under the Roc-A-Fella imprint. His Live Nation deal was historic, and now he's shopping for distribution homes for other projects, rumor has it.

It's amazing to me that Mr. Carter still gets the Joe Camel jokes. Hasn't he transcended that? I kinda like married Jay with his hair grown out, lol, and can even take the overdone-geek-goggles. Obviously, the MC isn't impervious to the jabs, as he's alluded to them in song (Used to tell they friends I was ugly, they wouldn't touch me/Then I showed up in that dubbed out Buggy...-"Song Cry" or All the wavy-light-skinnned girls is loving me now..."December 4th").

I always, always thought his talent and intellect trumped his lack of leading man looks. He's just interesting and soft-spoken (not quiet, which isn't an attractive quality for me in a guy) and curious. Strip away the franchise deals, the Hewlett Packard spots, the 40/40 clubs and so on, he'd still be a force just being that dude sitting behind you in an English lit class.

I like this 'power moves' flick of him with cigar-chomping Warner Music Group Chairman and CEO Lyor Cohen (Lyor IS a sexy older man; the only time I've ever seen him in person, he sat behind me at a screening of Ray and I was absolutely star-struck)... Back-room dealing.