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Weekly updates


Over the weekend, Jay Z upped his TiDAL game by performing a B-Sides show that all TiDAL subscribers could stream live. Some even got the chance to win free tickets and the chance to hit the crowd amongst the non-subscriber plebs by making killer playlists on the streaming service. On the night, Hov reportedly laid down some classics from his discography including ‘Young, Gifted and Black,’ ‘A Million & One Questions’, and ‘Dead Presidents Pt. 1.’, but the dude just couldn’t resist reminding us all that he’s not a businessman, he’s a business, man.

Jay interrupted his set to drop a mean freestyle but rather than it being some off-the-cuff fire that let us know he was still on top, it wound up being a weirdly politicised rant about TiDAL’s position in the game. In the bars, Jigga compared YouTube royalties to the U.S.’ racial wage gap and segued between citing real cases of white-on-black police brutality with the independence of his TiDAL project. There is a fierce freestyle hiding in his flow somewhere, but the constant references to how much J Hova isn’t struggling with his current venture in between those super serious statements is kind of like when you’re watching a long YouTube video and it pauses in the middle to run a brightly coloured ad you’re not interested in.

Going by the video, it at least sounds like he bounces immediately back into his classic bars immediately after he gets done with the rhyming TiDAL promo. Read the transcript of the freestyle below and check out the freestyle vid and a few other moments from the night in the gallery above.

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 offered a safety net
Google dangled 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 died 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
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 manhood, same difference
Oh n****s is sceptical about they own shit
You bought nine iPhones and made Steve Jobs rich
Phil Knight worth trillions you still bought those kicks
Spotify’s [worth] nine billion and they ain’t say shit!
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!

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