By: Antoinette Alston, contributing intern

Tidal, Jay Z’s newest business venture, was honored to exclusively stream Lil Wayne’s “Lil Weezyana Fest,” which took place in New Orleans on (August 28). Several special guest artists performed like Master P., Turk, Juvenile and Mannie Fresh. Unfortunately, it all came to a halt – on live feed – during Drake’s performance of “Back to Back” when the feed was cut off.

Supposedly, Tidal received a threat from Apple – a $20 Million lawsuit – if Drake made an appearance and performed solo or within a group during the Lil Weezyana Fest. There were no initial reports given about the details of Apple Music and Drake’s contract together. However, Tidal took to Twitter to lash back at Apple Music.

“Apple is interfering with artistry and will not allow this artist to stream. Sorry for Big Brother’s inconvenience.”

“We’ll be back after the performance.”

Not only did Tidal lash out, but Drake’s manager Future the Prince weighed in on the situation claiming that Tidal told a little white lie. Future the Prince claims that it was his decision to not have Drake’s performance streamed during the show. He says that Apple did not have anything to do with it, also the company doesn’t have the power to block a Drake performance.

“The decision to not have Drake participate in the Tidal steam has nothing to do with Apple or Drake’s deal,” Future the Prince says. “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.”

The real reason Drake’s manager says the performance didn’t go live is because they didn’t know how the quality of the live feed would be.

“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,” he said. “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.”

The Lil Weezyana Fest was a benefit for Weezy’s Tha Carter Fund, which is meant to provide rebuilding funds to the victims of Hurricane Katrina on its tenth anniversary.

 

Source: HipHopDX