Did Yeezy download a pirated version of synthesiser Serum? The rapper-slash-designer might have revealed too much on Twitter

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

Kanye West uses Pirate Bay.

Yes, that’s right: Kanye West (lyrical genius of a generation, launch partner of Jay Z-backed streaming service Tidal, husband to Kim and father to North and Saint) uses Pirate Bay (file sharing site, founders sentenced to jail terms, blocked in the UK and shut down in its native Sweden).

West made the accidental revelation on Wednesday morning, taking to Twitter to post a picture of his computer screen as he listened to the Sufjan Stevens track Death With Dignity.

KANYE WEST (@kanyewest) Day 3 pic.twitter.com/zPw0eFEFGF

Even that would have been fairly embarrassing, revealing that West turns to YouTube when he wants to hear a song. As one of the stars involved in the high-profile relaunch of music streaming service Tidal, which was explicitly sold on the need to give artists a fair share of the revenue of music streaming, that seems to be an odd choice.

But in the tweet – a photograph of West’s Mac screen, rather than a normal screenshot – he also shared the other tabs he had open in Safari at the same time. One was the page for Serum, a $189 synthesiser made by Xfer Records for Mac and Windows; and right next to it was the Pirate Bay page for a download of something beginning with the letters “Xfe”.

Obviously that’s not enough evidence to say for certain that West searched for the synthesiser, saw the price, and decided to download a pirated version of it instead.

So let’s not say that. Let’s let superstar producer Deadmau5 say it instead.

deadmau5 (@deadmau5) What the fuck @kanyewest ... Can't afford serum? Dick. pic.twitter.com/8B2aiyORZs

deadmau5 (@deadmau5) Let's start a Kickstarter to help @kanyewest afford a copy of Serum.