Lil Wayne utilized the spotlight at Saturday's KMEL Summer Jam event to make quite an announcement. Speaking to the crowd with a calm confidence (see above), Wayne says he recently signed a deal with his "motherfucking idol" Jay Z. As previously reported, Wayne recently signed with Kobalt Neighbouring Rights — in an effort to find assistance in the pursuit of global royalties owed following his ongoing split from Cash Money Records.
As such, the chance of Wayne having joined Roc Nation in any capacity other than management client — though delectable daydreaming material — seems relatively unlikely. As evidenced by his recent Tidal release of "Glory," it is far more likely that Wayne is simply referencing a Tidal-related business pairing. Also of note — "Glory" carries the Cash Money insignia, meaning Wayne is obviously still a part of the increasingly contentious roster.
Though the internet has been largely unkind toward Jay Z's Tidal ventures, the royalty statistics seem to validate the streaming platform's much-discussed "helping artists" ethos. In March of this year, Tidal paid an average royalty per stream of $0.024 - $0.028 — much higher than Spotify's supposed average of $0.006 - $0.0084 per stream during the same time period.
More to come.
UPDATE: As we expected, the deal is not related to any Roc Nation happenings. According to TMZ, Wayne's manager Cortez Bryant says Saturday's remarks were directly referencing a Tidal deal. Thus, the world now has a new request — Tha Carter V on Tidal (?)
