With news that Jay-Z has reportedly bought out his contract with Def Jam for $5 million, rumors are circulating that the Brooklyn MC is in talks to bring his Roc Nation imprint to Sony.
 
HitsDailyDouble.com reports that Jay has several connections to the company. Epic president Amanda Ghost is managed by Roc Nation and Hov’s business partner Jay Brown, and recently Brown has been seen around town on several occasions with Columbia/Epic Label Group Chairman Rob Stringer. Inside sources reportedly involved in the deal say that the partnership should be finalized soon, with Roc Nation releasing material on both Columbia and Epic.
 
Jay has several names attached to his Roc Nation imprint, a reported $150 million deal he brokered with Live Nation last year. He has signed up-and-coming North Carolina MC J. Cole, Mickey Factz and is in talks with former Roc-A-Fella rapper Young Chris. Roc Nation has already signed up a sizable roster of emerging producers and songwriters and co-manages Washington, D.C. XXL freshman Wale.

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Roc Nation appears to be ushering in a new and redesigned business model in that it’s more than just a record label. It a record label, music publishing and artist management company. On the music/publishing side Roc Nation and already signed a great deal of musical talent in the form of songwriters and producers (as mentioned above) which translates to producing music in-house thus cutting out the expense involved when dealing with an outside or 3rd party. On the management side they have picked up D.C. rapper Walé, who’s making a name for himself but they have also recently signed R&B singer Brandy and will now manage her.  Will this mean they will continue to aquire well established artists to manage who can also generate buzz for the company as well as checks. Then there’s the record label where artists can have the potential to have access to in house production, songwriting, management, if this deal falls through, distribution all under one roof.

Time will tell if this is the new model to getting paper for labels but it does sound pretty innovative. That boy Hov keeps playing chess with dudes playing checkers.