Prince’s estate just became one of Jay Z’s 99 problems. The late icon’s camp reportedly rejected Hov’s lucrative offer for the Purple One’s music catalog.
TMZ reports that Prince’s estate wrote a letter to Mr. Carter’s team, saying it was not interested in a deal that would allow Roc Nation to “exploit any of [its] intellectual property assets.”
It was previously reported that Jay offered the estate $40 million for rights to Prince’s unreleased tracks. The legend’s only full sibling, Tyka, and her husband, Maurice Phillips, were interested, but they do not have full rights to such a deal.
Beyond this, the estate is also claiming to be upset with the fact that TIDAL made 15 Prince albums available for streaming after Prince’s death.
The estate concedes that Prince signed a deal with Jay Z for the 2015 release of his last album HITnRUN Phase One, but the estate claims it hasn’t found proof of the $750,000 payment due.
Upon signing the deal, Prince celebrated Hov’s work with the streaming service. “TIDAL is sinking money into [the album] and they need it,” he explained. “And my heart is always on because I want them to do well. [Beyoncé and Jay Z] have taken a lot of abuse, their family has. A historic amount of abuse between the two of ’em. And when we win on this, none of us’ll gloat. He’s not the gloating type anyway. He’s slick with his. He says to brush the dirt off your shoulder.”