Well, Jay Z certainly took his concert audience on a journey when a mid-show rhyme tackled everything from Spotify to Apple. As reported by the Inquisitr, Jay Z recently gave away free concert tickets to some of his Tidal subscribers . During the Saturday night show on May 16, the iconic rapper took a moment to clap back at his Tidal haters and point out a few more Tidal Facts. He also weighed in on the deaths of black men recently in the press at the hands of cops. The YouTube clip of his intermission show flow is going viral.
“Off the 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”
After taking on the Google-owned YouTube, Jay Z saved some of his hardest hitting lyrics for the crowd next.
“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 hi-fiving
You know this ain’t back in the days, right?”
That’s when talk turned to recent cases of the deaths of African-American men in the news.
“Well I can’t tell — the way they killed Freddie Gray, right?
Shot down Mike Brown
How they did Tray, right?
Let ’em keep choking n****s, we gon’ turn style
I ain’t your token n****”
The rapper remembered his days of coming into the rap game solo.
“You know I came in this game independent, right?
Tidal – own label – same difference
Oh, n****s is skeptical it’s they own s***
You bought 9 iPhones and Steve Jobs is rich
Phil Knight worth trillions — you still bought those kicks
Spotify is 9 million — they ain’t say s***”
According to the Daily Mail , critics have accused Jay Z of overcharging Tidal subscribers simply to add onto his own fortune. “Jigga,” however, begs to differ. Jay Z has accused big companies of paying for press to confuse users about his Tidal music streaming service.
“Lucy, you got some ‘plaining 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.’ “
The concert at New York City’s “Terminal 5” in Hell’s Kitchen featured Jay Z reaching into the vault of his lesser known “B-sides” and other songs. It was a feat that Jay Z told the crowd wasn’t easy, because he had to remember a plethora of lyrics. He also brought former rapping buddies on the stage and gave a tribute to B.B. King in the show.
[Image via Tidal]