National Basketball Association

Jay-Z says he scares sports agents

Published Jul. 12, 2013 1:00 a.m. ET

foxsports

Jay-Z, the rapper, is in the midst of marketing himself as a sports agent. So that's the important context of the quotes you are about to read.

He appeared on a radio show — The Breakfast Club Morning Show on Power 105.1 Friday — and more or less told the audience what made him so much better than other sports agents.

He cast himself as a rogue in the industry, a "problem" for the status quo.

“Those guys have been sitting around just doing the typical things,” Jay-Z said. ”Knock on the same doors.

"They go to Nike, they do the contract and then they sit back. They don’t do anything else. So they’ve been sitting around for 20-30 years just not doing anything. So me coming, that’s a problem for them. 'Cause now they have to go to work, now they have to wake up, now they have to do things. So they don’t want me around because now they have to do something for these athletes. The bigger goal is for all artists to get their just due. Not to get half-ass agents or people who rob them or people who don’t care about their finances. They’re just taking whatever is going to get them a check.”

Jay-Z's presence in sports is already a problem for Jason Whitlock, but this self-declaration as a troublemaker comes off as boilerplate posturing for a guy who knows a thing or two about both boilerplate and posturing. Every sports agent in America has some pitch to clients about how unique he is, what a rogue he is, how he's able to get things done that other agents just can't do. Most of those agents just don't get invited into FM radio shows to make their sales pitches.

And that's where the sale really is. It's basically irrelevant what Jay-Z actually says about what makes him a good agent. Nobody has any idea if he's good at this or not. Nobody is signing with him based on his track record in the field. What matters is that he's Jay-Z and he gets to sell himself as an agent on music stations.

For whatever that's worth.