Los Angeles, July 20 (IANS): Rapper Shawn Carter, popularly known as Jay Z, is said to have removed the hyphen from his name as he prepares to embark on a world tour with his new album "Magna Carta... Holy Grail".

"Breaking: Jay Z has dropped the hyphen from his name, according to his label. I am not kidding. (Wish I was)," Joe Levy, editor, Billboard.com tweeted, reports contactmusic.com.

The music journalist went on to discuss the punctuation change with other Twitter users, saying that the hyphen seemed to disappear around the time of the rapper's 2011 album with Kanye West "Watch the Throne", and has not been used on iTunes in some time.

However, the punctuation mark continues to appear on Jay's album artwork, including the recently released "Magna Carta... Holy Grail".

Some Twitter users were against the change with one fan tweeting: "I refuse to comply with the new Jay-Z no-more-hyphen law."

However, most fans seemed indifferent to the missing punctuation, with many wondering why the rapper, real name Shawn Carter, had bothered to change his name.