In an effort to promote his new Tidal streaming service, Jay Z held the #TIDALXJAYZ B-Sides concert at New York’s Terminal 5 on Saturday night.
Jay brought out special guests Jay Electronica, Young Jeezy, Just Blaze, State Property, and more to perform B-sides from his catalogue — and you could stream the whole thing on Tidal.
One of the evening’s many highlights included a freestyle in which Jay blasted YouTube, Spotify, and those fans who have no problem supporting White millionaires but are super critical of Black ones — like himself.
He name dropped Steve Jobs and Phil Knight to make his point.
In the same freestyle, he also name-dropped Freddie Gray, Michael Brown, and Trayvon Martin.
Check out the performance followed by a transcript below.
“So I’m the bad guy now I hear, because I don’t go with the flow
Don’t ever go with the flow, be the flow
And I don’t need no middle man to talk to my n—-s
I understand if you don’t understand, I figure I’m Jigga
That’s where we differ
I take what’s mine, you accept what they they give you, I get you
I don’t take no checks, I take my respect
Pharrell even told me go with the safest bet
Jimmy Iovine on for the safety net
Google dig 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
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 high-fiving, and you know this ain’t back in the days right?
Well I can’t tell, how the way they killed Freddie Gray right?
Shot down Mike Brown how they did Tray right?
Let them continue choking n—-s,
We gon’ turn style, I ain’t your token n—-
You know I came in this game independent, right?
TiDAL, my own lane, same difference
Oh n—-s is skeptical about they own shit
You bought nine iPhones and Steve Jobs is rich
Phil Knight worth trillions you still bought those kicks
Spotify worth nine billion and they ain’t say s–t!
‘Lucy you got some ‘splaining 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”
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