It’s been a little under a year since Brooklyn rapper Jay-Z announced he would be relinquishing his title as one-percent share owner of the Brooklyn Nets to embark on a new title as founder of Roc Nation Sports (RNS).

Within the past 12 months, Jay-Z and President of Roc Nation Sports Juan Perez have enlisted several athletes from all over the sports spectrum in order to build a name for themselves amongst other agencies. The competition rose quickly, catching the attention of young elite athletes, envious athletic companies and even artists considering going into the sports arena.

Perez on delegating who’s right for RNS:

“First we look at performance. You just have to be at a certain level, cream of the crop. Then the same things: a story behind him, his character, the market value of the player, just different things.”

Perez on their negotiating philosophy:

“We help develop a player’s brand off the field, which eventually brings more fans, more recognition to the player so more people want to meet the player, see the players play. So we’re branding the player, marketing the player—that makes the player even bigger than what he was when we got him. That helps as far as negotiating.”

Perez on expanding the clientele:

Yeah, right now we’re just boutique-ish. And we want to keep it that way. Maybe ten, “fifteen football players. Ten, fifteen baseball players. We don’t want it to be 150, a thousand players, nah.”---“It depends. There aren’t that many elite players out there, that many players that we want. So we’ll be picking them as they come. The ones that are interested and that we love, we’ll take. It could take a year, it could take a month, I don’t know.”

Perez on who makes the final decisions:

“Just me and Jay.”

Roc Nation Sports currently represents seven athletes, including Skylar Diggins, Kevin Durant, Victor Cruz, Robinson Cano, Geno Smith, C.C. Sabathia, and Hakeem Nicks.—Morgan Murrell

[GQ]

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