It's deeper than Spotify. In the week since Tidal became a thing, Jay Z has already said ad nauseam that he and his fellow A-list musician shareholders aren't out to body the streaming services that already exist. But competition is in the man's DNA, from his pre-IPO HOV raps to bringing sports agency beef to the booth when he called out Scott Boras. So, for every L the dominant streaming service takes, like say, Spotify losing rights to Reasonable Doubt, you have to imagine Jay's at Tidal HQ cackling as he helps Memphis Bleek fill out Illuminati application paperwork.
We imagine the coming months are going to be a series of chess and checker moves between Jay and all his top tier talent at Tidal and Spotify. And as Jay racks up checks in the win column, he's surely letting a few of those trademark Jigga-Chortles go. As the streaming cold war rages, all we can do is sit back and wait for the Internet to decide the winner. And create galleries that illuminate what we imagine goes on in the Carter household these days.
Frazier Tharpe is a staff writer for Complex. Follow him @The_SummerMan.
When an album is missing random tracks.
When a rap album (or song) is clean only.
When you try to find that new Rihanna song/Beyoncé video.
When an album or entire discography is suddenly pulled.
When your subscription suddenly cancels itself and won't let you get back on for some reason definitely not linked to the Illumanati or anything.
When you can't get any Datpiff mixtapes.
When you can only find the karoake version of a song you want.
When ads on the free plan pause after you lower the volume.
When new albums don't get added till the next day instead of at midnight (like iTunes).
When you forget to put private session on when listening to a guilty pleasure.
When you're trying to play Reasonable Doubt.
