Kanye West is being sued by one of his biggest fans.
Back in 2016, Justin Baker-Rhett filed a lawsuit against Kanye and Tidal, the streaming music service owned by Jay-Z.
According to Pitchfork, Justin claimed that he signed up for Tidal on the sole condition that the rapper’s The Life of Pablo album would be exclusive to the service, after Kanye tweeted, “My album will never never never be on Apple. And it will never be for sale … You can only get it on Tidal.”
However, the album was available on Apple Music six weeks later, leaving Justin disappointed.
Tidal tried to have the case dismissed, however, U.S. District Court Judge Gregory Woods denied parts of their motion to dismiss the proposed class-action lawsuit – meaning the case will go forward.
Last year, Kanye tried to have the case dismissed by insisting that his album was “updated and remixed numerous times, with different vocals, lyrics, and arrangements.”
He argued that his tweet was true because only the newly updated and remixed versions of The Life of Pablo “have been made available for purchase or streaming on platforms other than Tidal.”
However, the judge ruled that, “Mr. West’s argument is tenuous, and certainly does not pass muster in the context of a motion to dismiss.”
Justin’s lawyer Jay Edelson commented, “The defendants made a bunch of arguments to get the case thrown out but the court accepted our core premise: what we alleged constitutes consumer fraud.”
“The court wants us to amend our pleadings and, based on how it decided certain issues, we won’t easily be able to have one nationwide class. That means that we will be bringing a bunch of state-by-state class actions. This is a bit of a ‘be careful what you wish for’ situation for the defendants.”
