Jay-Z officially confirms that he parted ways with Def Jam.
"I can honestly say, working with Doug Morris and L.A. Reid has been a unique and fulfilling experience and I respect them immensely," Jay-Z said in a statement.
Jay-Z, who owed Def Jam one last album, bought himself out of his contract for $5 million.
"I've been in the family for almost my entire career," Jay-Z furthermore explains to the publication. "Doug and I spoke directly and had one of the most unique 'negotiations' ever. Doug won the toss but, we both won in the end..."
"I thank him for allowing me to be a completely independent artist. Not every artist can say they own or are given the opportunity to own all of their music," he continued.
Jay started a new record company, Roc Nation, and has been working on the Blueprint 3with Kanye West.
In a previous interview, Jay told MTV about Blueprint 3 and the reasons for the delay, "For me, the process of making an album is difficult with so many things going on. And me, I wanna make it beyond and above. I'm gonna take my time with it. I don't have any quotas, and that's a good thing. It may be too freeing. It's a good thing and a bad thing. You know, I think I need some restrictions. 'Cause if I had restrictions, I would have done it in three weeks. I would have made what I believe to be a great piece of art. I actually recorded a lot of records already. You know, all those records that leaked online were on Blueprint 3."
