In a move that’s not surprising, Jay Z’s company, “Roc Nation” is getting into the sports agent business. “Roc Nation Sports” will be a partnership with CAA (Creative Artist Agency.) The company already has their first client, New York Yankees’ Robinson Cano. Cano has left agent Scott Boras and is in the final year of a six-year, $57 million deal with the team.
Per ESPN, Jay Z is heavily vested in this venture and is planning to become a certified agent. The plan is to start with baseball and eventually in basketball and football. The basketball move would require Jay to give up his minority stake in the Brooklyn Nets. But considering his marketing company is pretty vested and has already left his imprint all over the franchise, is that a bad thing?
Granted we’ve seen this before with Master P and “No Limit Sports” which famously jacked up a contract for the NFL’s Ricky Williams and also for a short period of time handled the NBA’s Derek Anderson and Ron Mercer. Derek even had a “No Limit” tattoo that said DA the prosecutor…
Even SFX has it’s roots in the music industry when they purchased super agent – and Michael Jordan’s agent – David Falk’s agency, Falk Associates Management Enterprises (F.A.M.E.) back in the 90’s. There were also rumors a few years back that Lil Wayne’s company, “Young Money” was thinking about getting into the sports management game.
With CAA on board though, the difference in this music and sports clash is that the experience and relationships in the sports world are already in place. This will be interesting to watch. Giants Victor Cruz has been rumored for months to be coming on board with the ROC in some sort of capacity. I can imagine other jocks would love to bask in the limelight of Jay Z.