Jay-Z’s entire discography has returned to Spotify on his 50th birthday (04.12.19).
The streaming service took to social media to wish the ’99 Problems’ rapper, who owns rival streaming app Tidal, a happy birthday and to announce that all of his music is now available to stream again.
They tweeted: "Happy birthday, Hov
Welcome back to Spotify.http://spoti.fi/JAYZ (sic)"
The majority of the hip-hop superstar’s music vanished from Spotify and Apple in April 2017, but was only restored on Apple Music.
Spotify said at the time that this was done "at the request of the artist".
He did however leave behind his joint Linkin Park LP, ‘Collision Course’, plus ‘Reasonable Doubt’, ‘In My Lifetime, Vol. 1’, and ‘Vol. 2…Hard Knock Life’.
Fans can now stream records such as 2007’s ‘American Gangster’, 2003’s ‘The Black Album’, and 2011’s ‘Watch The Throne’.
The ‘Holy Grail’ rapper’s wife Beyonce made a similar move in April, when her album ‘Lemonade’ was made available on Spotify and Apple Music after being a Tidal-only release.
It’s not been stated whether Jay’s music will remain on Spotify or whether it’s just for his birthday.
Meanwhile, UK rapper Stormzy recently revealed he turned down the chance to collaborate with the ‘Empire State of Mind’ hitmaker.
Jay was lined up to appear on his and Ed Sheeran’s track ‘Take Me Back To London’ after a suggestion from the ‘Shape of You’ star, but Stormzy rejected the opportunity because it was "not the right song" for them to work on together.
He explained: "We were all in the studio.
"In my Glasto performance, there was a video [of me and Jay-Z].
"We went to the studio, we all went to make a song and the song was ‘Take Me Back to London’.
"We were all in the studio writing, me, Ed Sheeran and Jay-Z.
"Before that I loved ‘Take Me Back To London’ because I thought it was just going to be me and Ed and then Ed was like, ‘Jay is getting on it.’
"It blew my mind. Jay-Z is my number one hero inspiration. We got into the studio and we were writing for this song and then he just stops the music and he said, ‘Tell me about London, I need some inspiration.’
"Me and my manager were telling him about London and we had this powerful, beautiful, greatest conversation of my entire life so that’s where that footage [at Glastonbury] came from.
"We were talking about everything from black culture, community, music, his journey, my journey, it was the greatest conversation of my life.
"At the end he’s smiling, we were probably talking for an hour and he goes, ‘So what do you think of the song?’
"I had verbal diarrhoea. I was like, ‘I love this song but you being on the song changes everything.’
"’Take Me Back to London’ with me and Ed is one thing, but now that Jay-Z is on it … This is Jay-Z and Stormzy, what he means to culture, what I mean to culture … I said, ‘Is this the song?’
"I didn’t think it was the song … in my heart, in my soul musically, I just had verbal diarrhoea.
"I felt proper bad because I was like, ‘You’re saying no to Jay-Z.’"
Stormzy admitted Jay was "shocked" to be snubbed from the song, but he "fully understood" the reasoning behind the decision.
Jay-Z’s entire back catalogue returns to Spotify on 50th birthday
