Any time Jay-Z makes a business move, the Rap mogul's intentions are called into question. It happened when he announced he would be purchasing Tidal, it occurred when he announced his partnership with the NFL, and new conversations are being had now that it has been shared that Jay and Jack Dorsey have worked out a monumental deal for Square, Inc. to acquire the majority stake in Tidal—a handshake that reportedly made Jay-Z nearly $300 million richer. However, Akademiks has a bone to pick with Jay-Z as the blogger calls him out for allegedly playing both sides of the field.
After praising Jay as a "great businessman," Akademiks had a few criticisms for the Roc Nation mogul. "Jay-Z bought a company, he said it was for Black creators. He said people shouldn't support Apple and Spotify because they're White-owned and he wanted to have something for the culture, for the artists, by the artists, and he wanted to keep it Black-owned and he wanted to do it that way. He did many B-Side concerts and sh*t like that talking about Black excellence, Black power, you should support him because he owned a Black business even though we found out later when they went to Sweden at Tidal headquarters, pretty much not one of the employees or the higher executive people at Tidal were Black."
Akademiks noted that Jay made a Tidal deal with Sprint where he reportedly walked away hundreds of millions, and now the remainder of his shares now belong to Square. "The Black-owned Tidal is now owned by Jack Dorsey, the White man." He accused Jay-Z of being a "bait and switch" businessman, adding, "That's the only thing I don't like about the way he does things."
"He's not doing it for Black people, he's doing it for his own selfish means," Akademiks stated. Swipe below to check out more of Akademiks analyzing Jay-Z's moves and let us know if you agree or disagree with his take.
