Jay-Z turned 50 years old on Wednesday. As a celebration, the prolific rapper’s entire solo catalog—from 1996’s landmark Reasonable Doubt to 2017’s critically-acclaimed 4:44—has finally been restored on Spotify, following a two-year absence.
“Happy birthday, Hov Welcome back to Spotify,” Spotify tweeted in a picture collage, with a link to his songs.
Happy birthday, Hov 🎁
— Spotify (@Spotify) December 4, 2019
Welcome back to Spotify.https://t.co/exr5QGgwCK pic.twitter.com/t7l4H5zn6E
Hov, of course, owns Tidal–one of Spotify’s primary competitors in music and content streaming–which makes this event all the more curious. No announcement or reasoning has been offered as to why the decision was made.
The catalog was initially pulled from Apple and Spotify in April 2017, at Hov’s behest, but it was restored on Apple Music shortly after. It’s taken until today for patient Spotify users.
Jay-Z has over 8.4 million monthly listeners per his Spotify page, which will gain a considerable boost in the short term. Instantly, all 17 of Jay-Z’s albums are streamable, including a collector’s edition of 2001’s The Blueprint, and Watch the Throne, his joint album with Kanye West.
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Enjoy the Daily Dot’s best-of Jay-Z playlist below—it was previously a Tidal exclusive.
