Jay-Z Might Need To Be Certified (WITH A College Degree) Before He Can Be A Sports Agent

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New reports seem to indicate that Hov is going to be limited in his sports agent abilities until he is certified by the NFLPA (which may or may not require an undergraduate college degree). From Pro Football Talk:

An interesting wrinkle arose on Friday regarding the emerging relationship between CAA and Jay-Z’s new firm, Roc Nation. Based on rules passed by the NFLPA in 2012, Jay-Z can’t recruit players to sign with CAA unless Jay-Z becomes an NFLPA-certified agent.

The concerns emerged because rival agents see the obvious problem with having Jay-Z recruit Giants receiver Victor Cruz to sign with CAA. The NFLPA reportedly has no problem with the connection, given Jay-Z’s established friendship with Cruz.

Moving forward, however, Cruz won’t be able to help close deals with CAA unless he’s certified.

Liz Mullen of SportsBusiness Journal reports that Jay-Z plans to become certified. And while Mullen points out that the soonest Jay-Z could take the certification test is January 2014 (we’d been told that the more realistic timetable is July 2014), she doesn’t address the requirement of a postgraduate degree, which can be waived if the NFLPA determines the applicant has had seven years of “negotiating experience.”

The situation becomes even more challenging if Jay-Z doesn’t have an undergraduate degree. It’s unclear whether any exemption is available if he lacks that credential.

While Jay-Z can handle endorsements and off-field deals for NFL players without NFLPA agent certification, he can have no involvement in recruiting players to sign with CAA for their football contracts unless he’s certified. If he’s not certified, and if every player that hires Jay-Z for off-field work also ends up hiring CAA, that could become his 100th problem.

Terrorsum (@Terrorsum) – From The Soul (Video)

Produced by Yello Man, the new visual and track from Terrorsum also marks the retirement of his artist moniker. From now on, he will be known as Christian King (his real name).

“Any music you see me release in the future will be under my real name Christian King … I feel I’ve outgrown the name Terrorsum and its not an accurate reflection of me as a person or the music that I’ve been making or want to make” – Christian King

Kendrick Lamar’s First Ever Mixtape, ‘Hub City Threat: Minor Of The Year’, Surfaces

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Kendrick Lamar’s (or K-Dot’s, as was his moniker then) first ever mixtape (or most of it, I’m not entirely sure) has surfaced (though it never disappeared, really) for everyone to enjoy (or laugh at, as it holds none of the lyrical dexterity captured in his more recent joints). Stream, tracklist and download link below.

Trinidad James ‘XXL Freshman’ Freestyle

Trinidad James is the next up to freestyle for XXL’s Freshmen series. Trinidad James had this to say about being 2013 XXL Freshman below:

Being a Freshman, it’s definitely an experience. It’s dope, or whatever. It’s another obstacle in life that I’m conquering. So it’s cool. I definitely couldn’t have predicted it. But I did say last year—when I started doing music and the way it started to get responses—that I really wanted to be on this cover because I felt like I was a true freshman. I think the later part of the year last year I was like, ‘I just wanna be on this Freshman cover.’ I felt like I was doing the right things and I had all the right criteria to be a Freshman when it comes to music. Really, I’m just a big fan of music. I love music, and I just felt like I had my own message to relay to people. So I decided to go for it, and now I’m here.