Jay-Z had just released an epic freestyle exclusive on TIDAL as he comes out to defend the new music streaming service after the media tagged it to be "Failing". In the one minute, 40 second video, Jay-Z talked about how artists are paid token for their services.
While speaking at the Jay Z - Tidal B-Sides Concert, Jay-Z bragged about how he never takes no checks, but instead take his respects and defends TIDAL against competitors like Spotify and Youtube.
“I don’t need no middlemen to talk to my ni**as / I understand if you don’t understand I figure my ni**a / That’s where we differ / I take what’s mine you accept what they give you / I get you / I don’t take no checks / I take my respect / Pharrell even told me ‘Go with the best bet’ / Jimmy Iovine offered the safety net / Google came around with a crazy check / I feel like YouTube is the culp-a-rit /. Ni**as pay you a tenth of what you supposed to get / You know ni**a die for equal pay, right? You know what I’m worth / I ain’t your slave right / You know I ain’t shucking and jivin’ and high fivin’ / You know this ain’t back in the days right / But I can’t tell by the way they kill Freddie Gray right / Shot down / Mike Brown / Like the way they did Tray right? / Y’all gone’ keep choking’ ni**as / We gon’ turn style / I ain’t your token ni**a / You know I came in this game independent right / TIDAL / My own label / same difference / Oh ni**as is skeptical of they own shit / You bought nine iPhones and Steve Jobs is rich / Phil Knight worth trillions you still bought those kicks / Spotify’s nine billion and they ain’t say shit / ‘Lucyyy you got some splainin’ to do’ / The only one they hatin’ on look the same as you / That’s cool / I know they tryin’ to bamboozle you / Spending billions on meryin’ to confusin’ you / I had to tell myself ‘Hov, get used to it’ / It’s politics as usual.”
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According to report, Pharell Williams got a token of $2700 for his "Happy" song even though it streamed 43million times on Pandora. Also Taylor Swift also said that a music streaming service like spotify is not adding to her art and has just ordered that all her catalogues from Spotify be pulled down because of the meagre amount they pay artists.
Pharell has joined bandwagon of artists asking Youtube to remove some of their video from its online service.