Kanye West, Tidal Sued By Man Over Streaming Album ‘The Life of Pablo’

Kanye West’s latest effort, The Life of Pablo, recently became the first streaming-only album to reach No. 1 on the Billboard 200 album chart. But it looks like his celebrated album is going to bring him some legal problems.

According to the Associated Press, a man is suing Yeezy and popular streaming service Tidal accusing them of tricking users into thinking that TLOP would only be a Tidal-only release.

Justin Baker-Rhett filed the proposed class action lawsuit in U.S. District Court in San Francisco on Monday (April 18). In his suit, he claims that West allegedly lured fans into buying a $9.99 a month subscription with the promise of TLOP being an exclusive Tidal release and then made it available for free on competing streaming services Apple Music and Spotify. The Chicago rapper-producer also made it available on his official website as well.

"Millions of people flocked to Tidal in February because of West's new album and the rapper's promise of exclusivity, giving the struggling site a boost and also a trove of user information," the lawsuit states.

Baker-Rhett wants a judge to erase user information like credit card numbers and other personal data that Tidal may have possibly collected as a result of fans buying a subscription just to hear West's album. The lawsuit contends the value of new subscribers and their personal information could be as much as $84 million for Tidal.

Baker-Rhett cited West's tweets as proof that he wanted his album only available at Tidal. "My album will never never never be on Apple. And it will never be for sale...You can only get it on Tidal," 'Ye tweeted in February.

In a statement, Baker-Rhett's attorney, Jay Edelson, said that West was misleading the public with his release of TLOP.

"We fully support the right of artists to express themselves freely and creatively, however creative freedom is not a license to mislead the public," he wrote. "We believe that we will be able to prove to a jury that Mr. West and Tidal tricked millions of people into subscribing to their services and that they will ultimately be held accountable for what they did."

West's good friend Jay Z, who is the owner of Tidal, is also named in the lawsuit.

Attorneys for Kanye West, Jay Z and Tidal had no comment on the matter.

What do you think? Did Kanye West conned people into buying Tidal subscriptions to hear his TLOP album? Tell us in the comments below.