Jay Z will no longer go by Jay-Z, now that the rapper has dropped the hyphen from his stage name, according to Billboard editor Joe Levy.

Levy announced the news via his Twitter account, citing label sources.

"Breaking: Jay Z has dropped the hyphen from his name, according to his label. I am not kidding. (Wish I was.) Copy editors: take note," he wrote on the social media site.

The Brooklyn-born rapper actually dropped the hyphen from his name as far back as 2011, when it appeared on his Kanye West collaboration Watch the Throne as "JAY Z." In the promotion for his latest LP, Magna Carta Holy Grail, his name also bears no hyphen. Still, neither the rapper nor his camp has released an official announcement about his new moniker.

Maybe Jay Z has refued to acknowledge the change because he doesn't want the name tweak to be viewed as a gimmick or face the ridicule fellow business mogul Sean Combs suffered, when the Bad Boy Records CEO went from Puff Daddy to P. Diddy and finally, Diddy.

But at this point in his career, Jay Z should be used to the teasing every superstar on his level faces.

Just yesterday, the rapper drew jeers when comedian Jay Pharoah performed an impersonation of the 43-year-old in his new role as a sports agent, at the 2013 ESPYS.

"It's Hova. Let me tell you, I wanna be your agent," Pharoah said. "Y'all know I made 17 albums, opened a chain of nightclubs, started a clothing line and married the most beautifule famouns women in the whole world. And you probably thought to yourself, I bet Jay-Z's got tons of free time to worry about my career."

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