Jay Z wants to own a piece of the Prince pie.
The hip hop mogul made a bid to buy Prince’s catalog of unreleased music. Since his death back in April, the pop icon has been rumored to have a massive catalog or unreleased material. This could be a gold mind for whoever get their hands on these music and release a few albums.
TMZ reported that Jay Z met with Prince’s sister Tyka and her husband Maurice Phillips a few weeks ago and made an offer of $40 million. The problem is, Tyka and Maurice does not have the rights to sign off on a deal of that magnitude. But if they can get all of Prince’s siblings and his trust on board then Jay Z could get his hands on all of the pop superstar’s unreleased music.
Prince’s music was being exclusively streamed on TIDAL prior to his death and during an interview with Ebony last year he explained why he sided with Jay Z in the music streaming war.
“Tidal is sinking money into it and they need it,” he said. “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… The catalog has to be protected. And some of our fans were actually disingenuous. Taking the time to get their playlists together and yeah, it’s gone. Now you got to actually go subscribe to get the music that you lost on Spotify. Spotify wasn’t paying, so you gotta shut it down.”
Prince died at his home in Paisley Park on April 21, 2016. His autopsy revealed that he died from an overdose on Opioid. Immediately after his death his music took over the charts with skyrocketing album sales. So it’s no surprise music execs are looking to get their hands on his unreleased material.
