Jay Z Uses Freestyle Rap to Bash Tidal Competitors Spotify and YouTube

By Cheri Cheng - 18 May '15 14:25PM
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Jay Z bashed Spotify and YouTube during his B-Sides concert while promoting his music-streaming service, Tidal.

During the concert in New York, which was available to stream exclusively on Tidal, Jay Z performed his hit songs throughout his 30-year career. During his performance, the rapper brought out Memphis Bleek, Young Gunz, Freeway and Beanie Sigel.

Despite the list of impressive guests, fans appeared to be most interested in Jay Z's freestyle rap that addressed Tidal critics and as well as competitors, Spotify and YouTube. In his rap, Jay Z called out the two services for racial injustice.

Here are the lyrics to the rap: 

"So I'm the bad guy now I hear, because I don't go with the flow
Don't ever go with the flow, be the flow
And I don't need no middle man to talk to my n----s
I understand if you don't understand, I figure I'm Jigga
That's where we differ
I take what's mine, you accept what they they give you, I get you
I don't take no checks, I take my respect
Pharrell even told me go with the safest bet
Jimmy Iovine on for the safety net
Google dig around a crazy check
I feel like YouTube is the biggest culprit
Them n----s pay you a tenth of what you supposed to get
You know n----s die for equal pay right?
You know when I work I ain't your slave right?
You know I ain't shucking and jiving and high-fiving, and you know this ain't back in the days right?
Well I can't tell, how the way they killed Freddie Gray right?
Shot down Mike Brown how they did Tray right?
Let them continue choking n----s,
We gon' turn style, I ain't your token n----
You know I came in this game independent, right?
TiDAL, my own lane, same difference
Oh n----s is skeptical about they own shit
You bought nine iPhones and Steve Jobs is rich
Phil Knight worth trillions you still bought those kicks
Spotify worth nine billion and they ain't say s--t!
'Lucy you got some 'splaining to do'
The only one they hating on look the same as you...
That's cool, I know they trying to bamboozle you
Spending millions on media trying to confuse you
I had to talk to myself, 'Hov you used to it
It's politics as usual"

Watch the entire concert here:

Jay Z re-launched Tidal in March. During that time, the music streaming service had a lot of support from big name artists, such as Kanye West, Beyoncé, Rihanna and Nicki Minaj. However, the service quickly lost its hype with many people criticizing the hefty membership fee.

This concert was the first of two special "Tidal X: B-Sides" performances.

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