Kanye Sued for Lying About Album's Exclusivity

Kanye West said his latest album would only be available on Tidal, but The Life of Pablo has since been released on Apple Music and Spotify—and now Kanye and Tidal are getting sued. Justin Baker-Rhett says the rapper, who has a stake in Tidal, defrauded fans, millions of whom signed up for Tidal in order to stream the album, the AP reports. (Tidal charges a minimum subscription fee of $9.99 a month, though USA Today notes a free trial is available.) Baker-Rhett has proposed class-action status for his suit.

In addition to the possible outlay of money for a subscription, Baker-Rhett's suit also states that "Mr. West's promise of exclusivity also had a grave impact on consumer privacy," because Tidal collected credit card information and personal information (including music preferences) from everyone who signed up. The information could be worth as much as $84 million to Tidal, per the suit, which asks a judge to order Tidal to delete the information. "They can't trick millions of people into paying money (and giving up personal information) just to boost valuation numbers," one of Baker-Rhett's lawyers tells Pitchfork. (Kanye has an awesome resting bitch face.)