In 2016, a fan by the name of Justin Baker-Rhett filed a class action lawsuit against Kanye West and Tidal because Kanye had previously said that his The Life of Pablo album would only be available on Tidal. Nearly three years later, a deal has finally been reached to end the legal battle. The Blast reported the news yesterday Wednesday (Jan. 30.), and now XXL has confirmed the news.
In a statement, a rep for Kanye says, “Tidal, Mr. West, and Mr. Baker-Rhett have resolved their differences amicably and the lawsuit has been dismissed.”
In his original lawsuit, Baker-Rhett argued that Kanye’s claim about TLOP being a Tidal exclusive was a “deceptive marketing ploy” just to get fans to purchase a subscription to Tidal. He also alleged that Tidal was on the verge of collapse financially prior to Kanye’s album release.
Kanye later responded to the suit by arguing that the “original version” of TLOP is still only available to Tidal users, while the other streaming platforms have the project after changes were made to it. To support his argument, his response included a tweet of his where he described the album as a “living breathing changing creative expression,” noting that those changes can be heard on Apple Music and Spotify releases, but not the original Tidal version.
In the summer of 2018, a judge ruled that Kanye and Tidal had to respond to the lawsuit in court. The judge also dismissed some aspects of the allegations.
“The defendants made a bunch of arguments to get the case thrown out but the court accepted our core premise: what we alleged constitutes consumer fraud,” Baker-Rhett’s attorney, Jay Edelson, said in a statement at the time. “The court wants us to amend our pleadings and, based on how it decided certain issues, we won’t easily be able to have one nationwide class. That means that we will be bringing a bunch of state-by-state class actions. This is a bit of a ‘be careful what you wish for’ situation for the defendants.”
With this lawsuit behind him, Yeezy can now focus on finishing
