Did Apple Music Block Drake’s Lil Weezyana Video Stream On Tidal?
No, says Future The Prince.
Lil Wayne's Lil Weezyana Festival featured a host of impressive guests like Drake, another rapper who knows how to throw a party for his home city. The entire event was streamed live on Tidal, the streaming service co-owned by Wayne. But when Drake took the stage, the broadcast stopped. Tidal immediately tweeted that Apple Music was to blame:
Drake has a $20 million deal with Apple Music, and The New York Post's Page Six reported that the company threatened to sue Tidal for the same amount if footage of Drake's performance was broadcast. However, Drake's manager Future The Prince has rebuffed that claim in an interview with Buzzfeed, excerpted below:
“The decision to not have Drake participate in the Tidal stream has nothing to do with Apple or Drake’s deal. ... Point blank, 100%. I made a business decision. Apple doesn’t have the power to stop us from being part of a live stream. The only people that have the power to do that are Cash Money and Universal, and they’re our partners. ... We wanted to make sure the stream represented us in the right way, and we didn’t have much insight into what they were doing. Aesthetics and quality are important to us and we didn’t have any control over that or time to investigate it. We were just there to participate in the benefit.”
Future The Prince took his defence of Apple Music even further and called Tidal's handling of the situation "a publicity stunt." After this catfight, is Drizzy still feelin' Tidal / feel entitled?