Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images for Roc Nation
Kanye West and Deadmau5 both have strong Tidal ties, but are the two artists on the same page when it comes to music streaming?
Yes, actually, but we'll get to that in a second. First, though, you need some backstory. On Tuesday, Kanye tweeted a screen grab of a computer screen that showed Sufjan Stevens' "Death With Dignity" playing. What Deadmau5 noticed, though, was a Pirate Bay tab that was also open in the browser and what appeared to be an attempt to torrent Serum, a program to import and edit audio that is sold for $189.
Xfer Records, a label co-founded by Deadmau5, produces Serum, so the DJ was obviously not happy to see what he believed to be an attempt to torrent the technology. "what the f--k @kanye west ..." tweeted Deadmau5, along with a closer image of the rapper's screen shot. "Can't afford Serum? Dick."
"Let's start a Kickstarter to help @kanyewest afford a copy of Serum," the DJ added jokingly. "He needs a small loan of 200$ #prayforyeezy"
Confused? So were we, because Kanye is well aware that The Life of Pablo has been downloaded illegally over half a million times (all the while he was urging everyone to subscribe to Tidal). The "Ultralight Beam" rapper's tweet actually made sense to us, though, when a source told E! News he posted the screenshot with Pirate Bay open as a joke.
Yep, a source tells E! News Kanye was trolling from the studio (only everyone actually took the bait). If you look closely at the original grab you'll see that's not actually his computer either—it's a Samsung monitor with Pro Tools running in the background. So, no, Kanye wasn't actually using any torrent sites or condoning stealing.
When Deadmau5 misinterpreted his little prank, though, Kanye couldn't help but make some jokes of his own about the DJ's onstage persona. So on Wednesday, 'Ye took to Twitter with a few quips.
"@DeadMau5 ... is this person's name pronounced dead-mow-five?" he wrote. "# ok very serious question... # whose job is it to carry the head on the plane # hash tag # do you check the mickey mouse head or carry on # does it get hot?
ok another super serious question ... is there a portable fan situation?... # hash tag you raised Tidal's subscriptions by a whopping [3 mouse emoji] downloads"
"# I'm bored," Kanye continued. " ### when you get married will your wife have a giant minnie mouse head? # This brightened up my day… thank you dead-mow-five"
"Do you do birthday parties?? My daughter loves Minnie mouse..." Kanye continued. "can you please bring the minnie mouse head … not yours she specifically likes minnie mouse...I need you to perform at her party with specifically a minnie mouse dead-mow-five head… not a mickey mouse dead-mow-five head....I'm very detailed oriented and I will know the difference so don't try to just throw a bow on the original head...I want to stream you performing in a Minnie Mouse head on @Tidal"