Jay-Z has signed a $150 million deal with Live Nation

[Elano]

The New York Times reports that Jay-Z has signed a $150 million deal with concert promotions behemoth Live Nation, encompassing his tours, albums, endorsements, and other business endeavors over the course of the next ten years. Those other endeavors will be under the rule of a new company called Roc Nation, and "are expected to include his own label, music publishing, and talent consulting and managing," according to the Times.

Live Nation expects at least three albums from Hova during the decade to come, and he's getting $10 million for each of them. We can also look forward to a lot more touring from him. Jay-Z told the Times, "In a way I want to operate like an indie band. Play the music on tour instead of relying on radio. Hopefully we'll get some hits out of there and radio will pick it up, but we won't make it with that in mind."

He also said, "I've turned into the Rolling Stones of hip-hop."

As previously reported, Jigga left his position as President of Def Jam Recordings in December, but was still under contract to the label as a recording artist. He still owes Def Jam one more album, which the Times reports will come out in 2008. So yeah, that album will kind of be like when your parents decided they were getting divorced, but they didn't want to break the news to Grandma until after she came to visit for the holidays, so they pretended that everything was fine and dandy for a few weeks.

This is the second ginormous deal Live Nation has struck this week, with U2 signing a 12-year contract for touring, merchandising, and website management, but not recording. In October, Madonna signed an all-encompassing deal with Live Nation valued at $120 million.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/03/arts/music/03jayz.html?_r=1&pagewanted=1&hp&oref=slogin

[J$crILLa]

never herd of LIVE NATION.... sounds like they have money

[Elano]

never herd of LIVE NATION.... sounds like they have money

Live Nation is the world’s biggest concert promoter.

[GangstaBoogy]

I don't like his music but I can't knock the hustle. Dude knows how to stack his paper.

[Episcop Cruel Cvrle]

I don't like his music but I can't knock the hustle. Dude knows how to stack his paper.

[CRAFTY]

10 million per album? That shit is unreal!

[G.F.G. Records]

I don't like his music but I can't knock the hustle. Dude knows how to stack his paper.

[Elano]

The Black Album  had to be his last record.... 

[when it rains it pours]

damn nigga gettin money
smart dude

[Elano]

It’s been a whirlwind week for Jay-Z. In addition to getting married and touring, the rapper is also on the verge of signing a $150 million dollar entertainment deal with Live Nation.
While Jay-Z and Beyonce’s union is generating huge press, news of his partnership with Live Nation has drawn criticism from Morgan Joseph analyst David Kestenbaum, who labeled the deal as "excessive." According to the New York Post, Morgan Joseph questioned the motivation for the new alliance and predicted that it will result in deeper debt for Live Nation.
"We question the reasoning behind Live Nation's reported deal with Jay-Z, and remain wary of management's willingness to spend such substantial amounts of money on developing its Artist Nation segment," Kestenbaum said in a note to investors. "We cannot figure out why Live Nation would pay $30 million more for Jay-Z, particularly given his relative touring underperformance and lower-profile status vs. the other two."
Representatives for Live Nation and Jay-Z revealed tour statistics to AllHipHop.com, which show the tour is quite successful, raking in tens of millions of dollars.
The first eight dates of "The Heart of the City" tour grossed more than $9.1 million dollars, while averaging more than 12,000 fans per night.
According to Live Nation, the outing is expected to generated in excess of $33 million dollars from the 28 performances scheduled across the U.S. and Canada.
Thus far, the Heart of the City tour raked in $1.5 million at a stop at Toronto's Air Canada Centre on Wednesday (April 2), nearly $1.7 million at Philadelphia's Wachovia Center and $1.8 Million in ticket sales at East Rutherford's Izod Center. The tour’s Baltimore performance at the 1st Mariner Arena was the second highest grossing concert of all time for the venue, topped only by The Rolling Stones. The Heart of the City tour will conclude in Uncasville, Connecticut on May 8.