Jay Z has absorbed quite a bit of criticism since the launch of his TIDAL music streaming service, even going to lengths to promote it as a Black business. The Brooklyn mogul caught some digital flack via social media after a photo was posted featuring he and Beyoncé as the only Black faces among a mostly-white TIDAL staff.
TMZ reported about the posting of the staff photo, which was posted on his wife’s website. The photo shows Hov and Bey mugging for the camera at the TIDAL office with staffers, most of whom don’t look anything like the Black business he purports it is. To be fair, as TMZ noted, TIDAL is based in Norway where people of color are most definitely the minority but that didn’t stop folks on Twitter from going into attack mode.
Most outlets are framing the response online as outrage after Jay seemed to suggest that the Black community isn’t behind his music service. While there aren’t any quantifiable numbers to research regarding the demographics of people who subscribed to the service, it’d be fair to say some of those would be people of color. Twitter commentary about the photo has been ongoing since Wednesday (May 27), and probably won’t let up anytime soon.
Hit the following pages to see some of the comments about Jay Z and the TIDAL staff photo. We’ve also sprinkled a few voices of reason amongst the din too.
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Photo: Beyonce.com
