Saturday night at New York's Terminal 5 marked the first of two Tidal X: B-Sides shows hosted by Jay Z, where the rap mogul trash-talked Spotify in one breath and honored the late B.B. King in another.
Introducing a setlist of never before performed live tracks, buried cuts of fan-favorites were implemented into the show, notes Rolling Stone. In the midst of a freestyle, Jay Z aired strong opinions against streaming service competitiors including Apple and YouTube. "Jimmy Iovine offered a safety net/ Google dangled around a crazy check / I feel like YouTube was the biggest culprit / Them n-ggas pay you a tenth of what you supposed to get," the rapper spewed spontaneously in regards to royalties, reports the Verge. "You know I came to this game independent, right? That's true / Tidal, my own label, same difference / Oh, n-ggas are skeptical if its their own sh-t / You bought nine iPhones and Steve Jobs is rich / Phil Knight worth trillions, you still bought those kicks / Spotify is nine billion and they ain't say sh-t."
The Blueprint rapper saved his heavy hits for his biggest competition, Spotify, who the rap icon accused of "spending millions on a smear campagain" against Tidal. "Lucy, you got some 'splainin' to do / The only one they hatin' on looks the same as you," Jay Z rapped. "It's cool, I know they're trying to bamboozle you / Spending millions on me to try to confuse you / I had to talk to myself, 'Hov, you're used to it' / It's politics as usual." Soon after, Jay Z and company jumped into the first live performance in almost a decade, of Reasonable Doubt's "Politics as Usual."
The two-hour Terminal 5 gig incorporated career-spanning tracks from Reasonable Doubt, American Gangster, The Blueprint and The Hits Collection--all of which streamed live on Tidal. Guests including, Just Blaze, Jay Electronica, Memphis Bleek and Beanie Sigel, stopped by the stage to show support for the rapper and his newest streaming service venture.
Nearing the end of the Tidal gig, Jay Z paid tribute to blues legend B.B. King, who passed just two days prior. "We just lost a legend. As you see, we're playing hip-hop, we're playing rock, we're playing blues. I mean, hip-hop incorporates all that sh*t. It's only music, it's all music; we just use different instruments," Jay Z said to the crowd. "We lost a legend, B.B. King. And I just wanted to play something for him real quick, just to give him a moment of silence. You can put your lighter in the air, you can put your hand in the air. Just stand there and let's get one moment of silence." Jay Z then followed his speech by playing a segment of "The Thrill Is Gone," by King over the speakers at Terminal 5. "Hip-hop is the blues," Jay Z concluded.
The B-Sides gig can be watched in its entirety below. The second of the two Tidal events will commence on Sunday night in New York.
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