Kanye West, Jay Z

Kanye West and JAY-Z don’t get along anymore. Now, it seems West and TIDAL don’t either. According to TMZ, West is threatening legal action against JAY-Z’s “artist-owned” streaming service, who the rapper says are in breach of their contract.

“We’re told Kanye’s beef with TIDAL is twofold,” TMZ writes. “His Life of Pablo album resulted in 1 1/2 million new subscribers to TIDAL, for which he was supposed to get a bonus but the company hasn’t paid. Kanye also says TIDAL reneged on reimbursing him for music videos.”



According to TMZ’s sources, TIDAL alleges that West hasn’t delivered the videos required by the contract. West, they say, says he’ll deliver the videos when he’s paid. Sounds like a catch-22.

It’s been pretty obvious that West has never really been onboard with TIDAL. When the service began hemorrhaging subscribers in its first few weeks, West seemed to publicly disavow the company he helped launch by deleting all of his tweets about it. Then, after promising 2016’s The Life of Pablo would only be available on TIDAL, it soon popped up on Spotify, Apple Music, and the rapper’s own website. He’s also cited “TIDAL-Apple bullshit” as a factor in he and JAY-Z’s falling out.

TMZ says TIDAL maintains that they have an exclusive contract with West, and that they’ll sue him if he works with another streaming service. “We’re told Kanye’s willing to walk away,” TMZ says, “but if TIDAL sues him, he’ll sue right back.”

4:44 gave us a look at Hov’s current thoughts on West. “You lost your principles,” he asserts on “Kill JAY-Z”.

More on this one as it develops.