Rapper and entrepreneur Jay Z made waves when he claimed that there is a racially-motivated component to why Apple and others are “hating on” his new Tidal streaming music service.
But if you thought the whole hip hop community would stand behind Jay Z on the topic, you’d be wrong. In particular, “Pump It Up” hit maker, Slaughterhouse member (and Apple fan?) Joe Budden hit back with comments in a recent interview.
His take on the situation? That people don’t buy products based on their love of a particular company. They do it because that company makes the best products. And right now, Apple does and Tidal doesn’t.
Oh, snap!
In an interview with AllHipHop, Budden described Jay’s Apple diss as “damage control” given the negative press Tidal has so far received. Most of this criticism has centered on the idea that Tidal doesn’t offer customers a better service than the likes of Spotify, but rather gives a bigger monetary cut to the artists signed up with the company.
In a freestyle rap he delivered last week, Jay Z commented how, “You bought nine iPhones, and Steve Jobs is rich. [Nike’s] Phil Knight worth trillions, you still bought those kicks. Spotify is $9 million, they ain’t say s**t.”
“[As far as] Steve Jobs and ‘we bought nine iPhones’ … the part that he left out was the iPhone at the time was considered the best product on the market by many,” Budden said in response. “Steve Jobs didn’t go to anybody and say, ‘Hey we’re not getting all of our money, so you should purchase this.’ … [The companies Jay Z singled out are] considered by many to be the best … on the market. It just so happened that today Tidal is not considered that.”
He also commented on the fact that any persecution Jay Z is feeling is less about race and more about business.
“I think smear campaigns are business,” he noted. “I think the streaming business is very lucrative and beneficial today. And I think as a new person coming in, your competitors would be trying to get you the f*ck out of here.”
It’s previously been suggested that Apple may have attacked Tidal by taking an unnecessarily long time to approve app updates, with the result being that the app has fallen out of the top 700 iPhone apps for the first time since its launch.
Robert Kondrk, vice president of iTunes Content, has also reportedly told executives at Universal Music Group that Tidal artists who put out exclusive music on Jay Z’s service won’t be promoted as featured artists on iTunes.
Luke Dormehl is a U.K.-based journalist and author, with a background working in documentary film for Channel 4 and the BBC. He is the author of The Apple Revolution and The Formula: How Algorithms Solve All Our Problems … and Create More, both published by Penguin/Random House. His tech writing has also appeared in Wired, Fast Company, Techmeme and other publications.
15 responses to “Rapper explains why Jay Z is smearing Apple with the race card”
Jay-Z said what he said, because many media publications came out and attacked Jay-z himself. In fact, they ran his service through the mud. And its actually no different than any of the services out there. So when he says things about Nike, Apple, and Spotify, these are all services that have not been severely criticized on the first week of release.
The Tidal service is not bad at all. I think the Apple service is going to give it a run for its money (no different than Spotify,Google Music, and Rdio). But its off to a great start. There have been some great exclusive content on Tidal, so far. I’m sure Apple’s service will be bigger, and maybe better because it should be automatically available on all IOS devices.
But this race card article is bullshit! In fact! What The Fuck is a race card anyway! There is no Race Card if Racism is a real thing that really exists in the world.
Fucking..Race…Card. Who wrote that crap!
Man….u got my attention..great thinking!
Tidal is a total piece of shit, so much so that musicians are making fun of it. Its just another billionaire saying their shit shines.
throwing out “the race card” means that the subject tries to divert others from the real cause of the issue and rather try to convince then that there are race-fueled reasons that caused the problem/issue at hand. For example:
“latino: hey I made this apple pie for you, its tasty af.
caucasian: no thanks I don’t like apple pies.
latino: OH IS IT THAT YOU DON’T LIKE THE PIE BECAUSE A HISPANIC PERSON MADE IT?! ?! YOU RACIST PIECE OF S****T”
People around the world know how black people constantly abuse that card. However we can’t blame them, since the reason they have the opportunity to use it relies on a history worth of decades that enables them a sound reason to have a race card.
The article is not bullshit. It’s actually a very informative one.
Look Bro. Racism (White Supremacy) is a serious matter. To degrade it to something as foolish as a Race Card, is mind boggling. There are people that may not like your pie because of your race. Also those same people could become politicians that don’t like you because of your race= Dangerous person.
People have, and still do die because of racism. I’ve never seen a person die because of a so called “Race Card”. So if a person is concerned about Racism. It should be looked at as some serious Sh%#. No different than Rape, or Child Abuse.
Bullshit? its hard sometime to tell the difference whether something is racially motivated or not,,Then your dumbA%@# say stupid stuff that proves Jay -Z right.. “People around the world know how black people constantly abuse that card” you too stupid see how racist that is..you are part of the problem..just so youknow that was a rasicist remark but you to stupid to know it
I was feeling you until your last comment about Racism not being real. You really need to wake up, In fact if the media was attacking Jay Z the way you say they were, then that ‘s a sign of racism right there, they didn’t attack any of those white companies did they!! They want people to put their money into white companies but not black, but you know!! things are changing and black people are beginning to realize they don’t need to make white people rich anymore.
The criticism had nothing to do with race… Jay-z is grasping at straws. A lot of the criticism had to do with the launch and how breathtakingly out of touch it was. There were all these filthy rich artists getting all pretentious and philosophical and talking about a “revolution” and adopting that sort of rhetoric. Which was ridiculous because this is all about a joint venture of already-wealthy artists trying to make big money by TALKING about the little guys (independent, up-and-coming artists).
What they don’t talk about is how the little guys use Spotify, YouTube and free streaming services as free advertisement to get exposure. The consumer can then decide if their product is worthy of their support. As groups get exposure online and thru streaming they then can make money doing endorsements and touring.
What Tidal is is a bunch of privileged artists who want to be making a constant income without putting extra work in and touring, doing adverts, etc. It’s a tough sell talking about getting artists more money when these people were worth a collective $1.7 billion (the artists at the launch).
The Tidal artists want to make extra money doing Tidal-exclusive work. But the up-and-comers that they pretend to be all about don’t yet have a big following… so Spotify actually helps these smaller artists get exposure that they otherwise would not be getting.
What makes the big fancy Tidal artists nervous is that the consumer now has more control than ever over which artists are worth giving their hard earned money to. They don’t need the free advertisement and exposure that Spotify provides… they already are famous. So they don’t like it.
The fact that they are trying to make a fortune on the concept of helping out the little guy when it really is all about them and their exclusive material is why they are getting criticized. It has nothing to do with the race card bullshit.
That’s why this article is so full of Shi%. Jay-z said nothing about race at all, but it seem to pop up in this article. The race issue exists only because Jay-z is black. It doesn’t have to exist, but it does, because of racism in this country. Period. There has never been a music company in history, that’s been willing to give, and share so much with new Artist. Ever! I cant believe there is even any bad news at all about this service. Where is the criticism for Sony, or any of the companies that have been sucking musicians dry for centuries. Just the fact that Tidal is even trying to help out Artists at all should be praised. Its hard to understand the criticism in a world where Sony Music exist.
Yes… Jay-Z didn’t pull the race card with his charming little rap. *sarcasm* I forgot that you cannot be racist if you are black. No, Jay-Z made it an issue by saying that Tidal was failing, because he and Kanye were black.You should look up his rap, if you don’t believe me. I believe he evoked Treyvon Martin, Freddie Gray, AND Michael Brown to prove his point about how deeply oppressed he is. Real charmer. But then again, that would be putting the blame on where it belongs – on the man who thinks his greed has to do with his race. We cannot have that!
what line in his rap was racist, you really got a problem with black people,,you may not be a racist you just act and talk like one
No, he said what he said because he is Black, and probably faces Racism (white supremacy) every day. It has nothing to do with Tidal. Hell, the frekin guy is a multi millionaire, and had the Police called on him in Barneys in New York.
Also, Yes! You are exactly right. Black people cannot be racist. Racism is White Supremacy, my friend. Which means one so called race supreme over another. There is no situation in this country where the so called black race is supreme over whites in the country, by design. Hell, even to this day we refer to each other as Black, and White, when in actuality a black person is African- Nigerian, Liberian, etc. And a White person is European- Polish, Irish, etc. Black people did not create the terms Black, and White. Racist Whites did, and we still use them to this day. Hints the term White Supremacy.
I cant believe anyone is upset with the so called Race Card. The day I see a White American killed over a so called Race Care, then we can scream, and Degrade Jay-z. But as we well know. People Die over racism (white supremacy) all the time. So if Racism is a concern in any form or fashion. I think we should take it kinda seriously. No different than Rape, or Child abuse.
I don’t see how it isnt better service than other streaming programs when the $10 service gets you 320 kbps streaming, music videos, live concert performances, and content exclusive only to the Tidal program.. You don’t have to pay $20 if you don’t want Flac music streaming which is super nice quality if your an audiophile but $10 a month is a damn good deal to be honest.. I switched over from Google play music which was $10 as well just about
Meh, sick of the “race card” topic.
I agree, but there are times when it is about that… what did your great grandfather do?