IT'S OFFICIAL FOR JAY-Z

So it's official.....


It seems rumors of Hov launching a record label have come to a head to be true.

StarRoc, pairs Hov with Norwegian songwriting/production duo Stargate (Mikkel S. Eriksen and Tor Erik Hermansen), the pair who've given us everything from Ne-Yo's "So Sick" to Rihanna's "Unfaithful" and "Take a Bow" to Beyoncé's "Irreplaceable."

According to a spokesperson for Jay, the new venture will be located at the rapper's Roc the Mic recording studio in Manhattan and will develop new talent through the kind of 360 deal — covering everything from touring to record sales and merchandise — that he signed with Live Nation earlier this year for a reported $150 million. The label is a 50/50 partnership between Jay's Roc Nation company and Stargate. The rapper is slated to deliver The Blueprint 3, his 11th and reportedly final album for Def Jam — where he stepped down as president last December — before the end of the year.

A small mention of the deal appeared in The New York Times on Saturday, noting that the new venture will also include a music-publishing arm.