Back in 2011, hip hop fans rejoiced when news broke that Kanye West and Jay Z were working on a full length collaborative project. That project was ultimately named Watch The Throne and was released in August of that year. The album was widely praised, and earned seven Grammy nominations, winning three of them. In the aftermath of the album's release, many fans asked if a sequel was in the works. Well, Kanye West gave the fans an answer during the Seattle stop of his Saint Pablo tour, and it's safe to say that fans won't be happy with what Kanye had to say.
Kanye West said the following in the middle of his performance at his Seattle show, There'll never be a Watch The Throne 2." The reason? Kanye said "it was some Tidal/Apple bulls**t." Kanye, who is also a part owner of Tidal, went on to further express his frustration on what the streaming exclusivity wars are doing to music.
(Getty Images for Roc Nation)
"I wasn't on [the album version of "Pop Style"] 'cause of Hov," said Ye. He was referring to Drake's single "Pop Style," a song in which Kanye and Jay Z were both on the initial release, but whose verses were both cut on Drake's Views album. "This s**t gets me tight every time I perform ["Pop Style"]," said the Chicago native. Drake is signed to an exclusive deal with Apple Music, which made the participation of Tidal artists Hov and Kanye, a bit complicated.
Kanye also revealed that the beef between Drake and Meek Mill, who is signed to Roc Nation, made Hov reluctant to hop on "Pop Style." "Out of respect for Meek Mill he didn't want to be on the track," said Kanye. Kanye went on to say, "I said, look, I'll call Drake, I'll call Meek, we gotta squash this s**t, we gotta let people have this song!" The beef between Drake and Meek, combined with the complicated aspect of the beef between Tidal and Apple (both racing to land bigger exclusives for their services), ended up forcing the Hov and Ye features on "Pop Style" to be cut.
Kanye also hinted that the exclusivity situation has put some strain on his relationship with Jay. "It went into some political s**t, some s**t about percentages on songs," said Ye in reference to the "Pop Style" verses being cut. "I can't take this s**t bro, our kids ain't never even played together."
Kanye has definitely opened some eyes on what the ugly side of the music streaming business looks like.
