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Jay-Z Buys His Way Off Def Jam

7:58 p.m. · May 21, 2009 · by Matthew Richardson

A lot of rappers talk like they just have millions of dollars laying around to spend as they please, but likely few of them. Jay-Z is clearly one of those few.

The news came out today that Jay-Z has bought out the remaining obligations of his contract with Def Jam for a cool five million dollars. I'm sorry, that's redundant; when is five million dollars not cool? At any rate, when The Blueprint 3 comes out, it will not be on Def Jam.

Also, it seems that Jay-Z might have bought the rights to all of his music in the deal too. Speaking to Rap Radar about the deal, Hove said, "I thank [Universal Music Group CEO Doug Morris] for allowing me to be a completely independent artist. Not every artist can say they own or are given the opportunity to own all their music."

So, for those of you who care about that kind of thing, it looks like Jay-Z's indie now.