As we mentioned earlier this week, Jay-Z came home with a victory at the Brit Awards, where he was named Best International Male Solo Artist. After the win, Jay spoke with BBC to acknowledge rumors, touring in the UK and signing new artists.

Jay-Z will be touring in Europe, which perhaps explains his presence with the Brittish press. Jay will be hitting Manchester’s MEN Arena on June 7th and Birmingham’s LG Arena on June 9th. Tickets for those shows go on sale today, February 19th.

While speaking to the BBC, Jay also added some insight as to what is going on in the record industry, on a world wide level.

“People have to be smarter about how they A and R, and what they put out,” he said.

“Record companies need to catch up to that, someone needs to send them the memo.”

To offer personal experience with this, he recalled his years with Def Jam.

“I remember the first year I was at Def Jam, we put out 56 artists. There’s not 56 great artists in the world, and this is one company. One company operating for like, 80 artists in a year. That’s just too many.”

Roc Nation may be getting new signees. Jay’s new label has been home to speculation that Cheryl Cole would come on board next. 

“Cheryl Cole, I saw her (at the Brits) last night. She’s had a big production. I don’t know, I have no idea but we’ll figure it out soon though.”