West, who apparently is rather popular, has terminated his contract with Tidal. West claims that Jay Z’s streaming service owes him upwards of $3 million and is in breach of contract. Through his lawyers, he has terminated his contract with Tidal, while the company apparently refuses to recognise it.

West was one of the first artists to join Jay Z’s streaming service at its launch in 2015; his 2016 album The Life of Pablo was originally released as a Tidal exclusive.

West claims that album brought 1.5 million new subscribers to Tidal — a number that was apparently supposed to come with a bonus cheque. Tidal went back on a promise of additional money for exclusive music videos, which Tidal claims Kanye never produced.

Tidal has threatened to sue West if he leaves the service, after all there are large numbers of its client base which are only there because West backed the service.

But it would appear that there are some behind the scenes spats between West and Jay Z. Jay Z’s recent Tidal exclusive 4:44, he references a $20 million loan and West’s claim that Jay refused to call him: “‘Ye / You gave him 20 million without blinkin / He gave you 20 minutes on stage, fuck was he thinkin’?”

West has made it clear he wasn’t very into album exclusives, something that the fruity cargo cult Apple is also into.

West said: “Tidal Apple beef is fucking up the music game. Let the kids have the music.”