Manager Denies That Apple Stopped Drake's Performance in TIDAL Live Stream

Yesterday, it was reported that Apple Music threatened Tidal with a $20 million lawsuit over a potential Drake appearance at Lil Wayne’s Lil WeezyAna Fest in New Orleans earlier this weekend. In a conversation with Buzzfeed News, Drake’s camp took the opportunity to react to the matter. As his manager indicates, Drake’s decision not to participate in Tidal’s live stream of the Lil Weezyana Festival was precisely that — Drake’s decision.

“The decision to not have Drake participate in the Tidal steam has nothing to do with Apple or Drake’s deal. Point blank, 100%. I made a business decision. Apple doesn’t have the power to stop us from being part of a live stream. The only people that have the power to do that are Cash Money and Universal, and they’re our partners.

I don’t understand. If you’re going to say something about the situation publicly, you should tell the truth. They saw the opportunity to take a situation and spin it in their favor as a publicity stunt.

We wanted to make sure the stream represented us in the right way, and we didn’t have much insight into what they were doing. Aesthetics and quality are important to us and we didn’t have any control over that or time to investigate it. We were just there to participate in the benefit.

Only question that remains? Why did TIDAL initially send out following tweets?

1/2 Apple is interfering with artistry and will not allow this artist to stream. Sorry for Big Brother’s inconvenience.

— TIDAL (@TIDALHiFi) August 29, 2015

2/2 We'll be back after the performance.

— TIDAL (@TIDALHiFi) August 29, 2015