The number of people that have beefed with Jay Z is extensive and well-known. But in 2013, Jay Z has been confronted with perhaps his most unlikely foe—superstar sports agent Scott Boras.
Boras was the former agent of New York Yankees second baseman Robinson Cano, whom Jay-Z signed to his Roc Nation Sports agency this past spring.
Adding insult to injury, Jay Z commented on the matter on Magna Carta Holy Grail’s“Crown,” spitting, “Scott Boras, you over baby / Robinson Cano, you coming with me.”
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The Wall Street Journal profiled the back-and-forth between the two men.
Hov had an interview with Power 105.1 previously where he said sports agents had gotten lazy. “They get an artist, right, however they acquire the artist—I mean the athlete—they get them and they knock on the same doors,” said Hov. “They go to Nike, they do the contract and they sit back. So they’ve been sitting around for 20, 30 years just not doing anything. So me coming in, that’s a problem for them. Now they have to go to work.”
In response, Boras suggested that Jay Z’s sentiment proved he doesn’t know the agency game. “Anyone who thinks playing the game of baseball is like being an artist knows nothing about the game of baseball,” Boras said. “I don’t worry about others, because you know what, in the end, as always, there are few survivors in [the agency] game. This game is something that when you come, and you look, and you don’t see—when you don’t see, you’re not here long.”
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Boras further explained his stance. “The reality of it is those deals have shrunk,” he said. “The executives of companies want more time from the player. They want him to get up at 7 a.m. and do an ad after arriving home at 3 o’clock in the morning? I don’t want a player doing that. I want him at the field at 3 p.m. and rested.”
The longtime agent also made a quip about Jay Z’s professionalism. “When your agent wears a Yankee hat,” he said, “how seriously are they going to take you?”
Scott Boras’ other clients include Prince Fielder, Alex Rodriguez, Stephen Strasburg, Jayson Werth and Barry Zito. Roc Nation Sports also has an NBA player in Oklahoma City Thunder’s Kevin Durant and NFL player in the New York Jets’ Geno Smith among its clients.
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