Watch Jay-Z's Freestyle Rant Against TIDAL Critics, Spotify, YouTube And Police Brutality
18 May 2015, 16:27 | Updated: 8 May 2017, 17:09
Jay is NOT playing around.
Jay-Z has (more or less) done a good job of biting his tongue against all the criticism TIDAL has faced since its launch; but it seems as though he's just been bottling it all up for one big wild tirade.
"Don't ever go with the flow - be the flow," he advised excited fans at exclusive TIDAL concert TIDAL X: Jay-Z B-Sides in New York this weekend, before launching into a freestyle that targeted a lot of his main critics. 'I take what's mine, you accept what they give you; I get you."
"I feel like YouTube is the biggest culprit; them n***as pay you a tenth of what you're supposed to get," he said, bringing light to the video site's less-than-favourable system for splitting their ad revenue. Other targets in Jay's diatribe included Apple, rival streaming service Spotify, and the systemic racism that has resulted in numerous deaths at the hands of police in the US this year.
"This ain't back in the days, right? But I can't tell, how the way they killed Freddie Gray, right? Shot down, Mike Brown; how'd they get Tray, right?"
Given that Jay and Beyoncé have apparently been quietly paying the bail of protestors in Baltimore, it's easy to see why he is so invested in the issue. Check out a recording from the TIDAL livestream of Jay's freestyle below.
