When Kanye West was working on his 2016 album The Life Of Pablo, he remarked on Twitter that the then-Tidal exclusive would “never never never be on Apple.” Two months later, the album appeared on Apple Music, Google Play, and Spotify, leaving fans who signed up for Tidal feeling deceived. Some of those fans banded together to sue Kanye and Tidal for deceptive practices in 2017. According to Pitchfork (via The Blast), the principal plaintiff in the suit, Justin Baker-Rhett, filed documents requesting to dismiss it yesterday, January 29.
According to the documents acquired by The Blast, the file states that Rhett and West “hereby stipulate and agree to the dismissal of Plaintiff’s individual claims with prejudice and the putative class’s claims without prejudice, with each party to bear its own attorney fees and costs.” While neither party has yet announced a settlement, it seems entirely possible that Kanye would rather have settled out of court rather than enter into yet another drawn-out legal battle. Kanye recently filed a lawsuit against Def Jam which was temporarily credited as the reason for his delays releasing Yandhi. Though Kanye denied that reasoning, he still likely has more than enough legal issues to sort through at the moment, even just from the fallout of this one album.
