JAY-Z‘s $300 million sale of TIDAL has won a lawsuit against a group of police officers who contested the deal.
According to Reuters, a Delaware judge tossed out a class action case brought forth by City of Coral Springs Police Officers’ Pension Plan against Jack Dorsey and other Block, Inc. board members.
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The pension fund — a shareholder of Block, Inc. (formerly known as Square, Inc.) — said the company’s purchase of Hov’s streaming service in March 2021 “seemed, by all accounts, a terrible business decision.”
In their complaint, they cited TIDAL’s struggling revenue and loss of major contracts, as well as their involvement in an alleged Norwegian criminal probe regarding its streaming numbers. The company also allegedly accepted a $50 million loan from JAY-Z to “shore up its finances.”
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While Hov wasn’t listed as a defendant, his name did appear frequently in the lawsuit due to his involvement in the sale of TIDAL to Block, Inc., whose board he joined as part of the deal.
The 53-year-old sold his 87.5 percent majority stake to Dorsey’s company for $306 million, but with adjustments, it came out to $237.3 million for an 86.2 percent stake.
The Brooklyn-bred billionaire “personally receiv[ed] proceeds in excess of $63 million” from the deal, according to the suit.
Despite scoring a victory regarding TIDAL, JAY-Z’s legal issues may not be over as Roc Nation was recently accused of stealing hit singles for A$AP Ferg and GloRilla.
According to AllHipHop, Houston-based music producer Kerry D. Brown — the managing member of Krushial K. Productions — accused Jigga’s company of using his copyrighted beats without permission.
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The allegations involve A$AP Ferg’s “Plain Jane,” which was released in 2017, and GloRilla’s breakout hit “F.N.F. (Let’s Go)” from 2022.
Per the lawsuit, Brown claims he met Roc Nation vice president Lenny Santiago (better known as Lenny S.) at The Dealmakers Conference at The Hotel Derek in Houston, Texas in 2015.
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He apparently gave Santiago samples of his instrumentals with an eye to build a relationship going forward, but never transferred the rights to his music at that point.
Brown says he then found out his two instrumentals, “You Don’t Know Nothing About Me” and “AUDIOBOX Instrumentals,” were used for “Plain Jane” and “F.N.F. (Let’s Go)” without permission.
Roc Nation, Lenny Santiago, Sony Music Entertainment Digital, LLC and Blac Noize Recordings LLC have all been named in the lawsuit.
“A lawsuit has been filed against you,” the lawsuit reads. “Within 21 days after this summons on you (not counting the day you received it — or 60 days if you are the United States or a United States agency, or an officer or employee of the United States described in Fed R. Civ. P. 12 (a)(2) or (3).
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“You must serve on the plaintiff an answer to the attached complaint or a motion under Rule 12 or the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. The answer or motion must be served on the plaintiff or plaintiff’s attorney.”
Brown claims neither Roc Nation or any other parties obtained a Notice of Intent to Use or paid royalties to Krushial K. Productions for using the copyrighted material in A$AP Ferg and GloRilla’s songs.
