Jay-Z Record Label Advice

American hip hop heavyweight Jay-Z has given his advice for poverty stricken record labels.

Jay-Z is one of the most powerful men in the music industry. An acclaim artist in his own right, the rapper was given the keys to the Def Jam mansion and helped to revitalise the hip hop powerhouse.

Signing a number of successful artists, Jay-Z later departed in a record breaking deal for Live Nation. A true kingpin, the rapper celebrated his arrival with the release of 'The Blueprint 3' one of the best selling albums of recent years.

In Britain to pick up a BRIT Award, Jay-Z paused to offer some advice to cash strapped labels. "Records are not selling as many as they were before and you've still got to go out and pay the Bentley bill" he warned.

Speaking to BBC News the hip hop titan warned that "people have to be smarter about how they A and R, and what they put out".

He added: "Record companies need to catch up to that, someone needs to send them the memo."

Jay-Z then compared the current climate to his time at Def Jam. "I remember the first year I was at Def Jam we put out 56 artists. There's not 56 great artists in the world, and this is one company. One company operating for like, 80 artists in a year. That's just too many."

Jay-Z confirmed a number of tour dates in the UK for later this year. The rapper is due to headline London's Wireless festival as well as two standalone dates in Manchester and Birmingham.

Jay-Z is due to play the following dates:

June
7 Manchester MEN Arena
9 Birmingham LG Arena

July
4 London Wireless

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