Electronic producer Deadmau5 has publicly criticised Kanye West after a tweet posted by the rapper appeared to show him illegally downloading music-making software owned by the EDM star.
West recently took to Twitter to upload a screenshot of himself listening to singer-songwriter Sufjan Stevens’ track ‘Death With Dignity’ on Youtube.
Deadmau5 later responded with a cropped and zoomed version of the screengrab, showing tabs open that included a torrent to the Serum software, which is produced by Xfer Records, a label co-founded by Deadmau5 himself. See that tweet below.
The EDM producer wrote: “What the fuck @kanyewest… Can’t afford serum? Dick.” He later added: “Let’s start a Kickstarter to help @kanyewest afford a copy of Serum… He needs a small loan of 200$ #prayforyeezy”.
Kanye West’s camp has since clarified the rapper’s tweets to Pitchfork. The report says: “The laptop in question is not Kanye’s. He posted the tweet as a joke, referring to the rampant piracy of The Life of Pablo. The computer is a Samsung. Kanye only uses Macs.”
West and Deadmau5 are both artist-owners of Jay Z’s music-streaming service Tidal. They appeared together at the Tidal launch last year.
What the fuck @kanyewest … Can't afford serum? Dick. pic.twitter.com/8B2aiyORZs
— Goat lord (@deadmau5) March 2, 2016
Let's start a Kickstarter to help @kanyewest afford a copy of Serum.
— Goat lord (@deadmau5) March 2, 2016
He needs a small loan of 200$ #prayforyeezy
— Goat lord (@deadmau5) March 2, 2016
The rapper only released his latest album ‘The Life Of Pablo’ last month (February 14), but has reportedly already started work on its follow-up, currently titled ‘Turbo Grafx 16’. West was recently pictured in the studio with producer Mike Dean, collaborator Kid Cudi, plus others.