Kanye West Hates The Streaming Wars Just Like Everyone Else

In a Twitter rant Saturday, Kanye West said what many music fans have been saying for months: can’t Apple and Tidal get along?

“This Tidal Apple beef is fucking up the music game. I need Tim Cook Jay Z Dez Jimmy Larry me and Drake Scooter on the phone or in a room this week!!!” Kanye tweeted.

“Fuck all this dick swinging contest. We all gon be dead in 100 years. Let the kids have the music. Apple give Jay his check for Tidal now and stop trying to act like you Steve.”

Since Tidal was relaunched with Jay Z’s purchase of the company earlier this year, the company has competed with Apple to get certain records exclusively, whether for an allotted amount of time or permanently. Apple had exclusivity for new records from the likes of Drake, DJ Khaled, Future, and Chance The Rapper. Tidal features exclusive content from artists like Jay Z, Beyoncé, Kanye West and Rihanna, all of who are part owners in the company. For example, Tidal is the only streaming service to have Jay Z’s Reasonable Doubt, Blueprint, Blueprint 2, and Blueprint 3 albums, and was the only service to stream Beyonce’s Lemonade.

As a result, music fans either have to buy subscriptions to services or simply choose one or the other, and miss out on their favorite artists since they can only afford one service. Or, as many did with Kanye West’s The Life of Pablo, resort to illegal downloads. We all know Kanye West’s infatuation with Steve Jobs, but his tweets on Saturday capture the sentiment that a lot of music fans have had this year.

At the end of June, rumors circulated that Apple was in exploratory talks to acquire Tidal. Updates since then have been nil, but Kanye wants to get the ball rolling to get the deal done. Many other music fans feel the same way.