Can You Knock The Hustle?… Jay Z Pulls Reasonable Doubt From Spotify, Onto Tidal

Jay Z’s 1996 debut Reasonable Doubt is a very special jewel in the artist-turned-mogul’s treasure chest. The album that cemented Jay’s status as a renowned lyricist has been a touchstone in his career ever since. There were 10th anniversary Radio City Music Hall concerts, a lot of Decoded real estate devoted to the Priority-distributed album, and a public custody battle with Roc-A-Fella Records co-founder Dame Dash surrounding its masters and rights.

Nineteen years old and still growing, Reasonable Doubt is coming back into the discussion again.

As Jay Z is ramping up his Tidal music streaming service, he has poignantly began stripping other platforms of his own artistic assets. Today (April 6), Spotify and other users may have noticed that they couldn’t stream “Dead Presidents II.” According to The Los Angeles Times, it’s a deliberate move with Jay at the steering wheel.

Late last month, Jay gathered affiliates such as Kanye West, J. Cole, Rihanna, Nicki Minaj, Madonna and Daft Punk to publicly promote Tidal. Maintaining that he is currently an independent artist (just as he was when he released Reasonable Doubt, prior to a long-lasting Def Jam Records contract), Jay is encouraging artists to directly release works onto his streaming platform.

In the last week, Beyonce and Rihanna have both released exclusive songs to Tidal.

Will Jay’s Def Jam-era materials, and lone Atlantic Records-backed Blueprint 3 follow?

Can you knock the hustle?

Related: Who Wants To Be A Billionaire? Jay Z Is Going Head To Head With Dr. Dre & Beats