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A Musical With Unreleased Prince Music May Be In The Works
A Musical With Unreleased Prince Music May Be In The Works
Photo by Kevin Winter / Getty Images

Report: Prince Estate Files Suit Against Roc Nation For Illegally Streaming Music on TIDAL

A Musical With Unreleased Prince Music May Be In The Works

Earlier this year, Jay Z proclaimed that "Prince left his masters where they safe and sound" in his guest verse on Fat Joe and Remy Ma's smash "All The Way Up." But it doesn't appear the late icon's estate is on the same page. According to a report from The Star Tribune, The Purple One's two music entities, NPG Records Inc. and NPG Music Publishing, filed suit against Hov's Roc Nation for illegally streaming his catalog on TIDAL.

Prior to his death, NPG signed on with TIDAL and Roc Nation to stream Prince's Hit N Run Phase 1 exclusively for 90 days, which the suit acknowledges. But it also claims that from June 7th on, Roc Nation and TIDAL "exploited many copyrighted Prince works" by continuing to stream them exclusively through the "artist owned" hi-fi streaming platform. Roc Nation allegedly filed documents that stated the extended nature of the agreement several times in the months since, but has failed to present that documentation of a "written and oral agreement" between the two camps.

The suit requests for the matter to be decided upon by a jury and that Roc Nation/TIDAL pay an unspecified sum in punitive damages. Earlier this week we learned that the Prince estate formally rejected Jay Z's $40 million dollar bid on the extensive unreleased (read: vaulted) recording left behind by the prolific purple sage. Universal Music Group will now handle the entire catalog, including the unreleased material.