Tidal crisis: Jay Z hit with $50m lawsuit from Birdman after Lil Wayne mixtape stream

Rapper Lil Wayne's attempt to get one up on former mentor Birdman by teaming up with Jay Z's music-streaming service Tidal has backfired, with Cash Money Records slamming the Spotify rival with a $50m (£32m) lawsuit.

In June the hip hop star, real name Dwayne Michael Carter Jr, announced a partnership with Tidal as an artist and owner at at KMEL's Summer Jam in Oakland.

"I just signed a deal with my motherf**king idol Jay Z," he told the crowd.

Days later, Tidal dropped Lil Wayne's The Free Weezy Album on 4 July. But according to Cash Money, they broke the law by streaming the mixtape as the label owns exclusive rights to Wayne's music.

In the lawsuit, Cash Money slams Tidal's actions as "a desperate and illegal attempt to save their struggling streaming service" and also claims that the new project's "tepid reviews" could hurt the label.

In an interesting twist, Tidal says Wayne gave Tidal the right to stream his music and that Cash Money does not own exclusive rights.

However, Cash Money fired back by citing various portions of its contract with Wayne in the lawsuit as a counter to Tidal's claims.

The drama comes just months after Wayne sued Cash Money for a whopping $51m, claiming that the company violated the terms of his contract by withholding more than $8 million from him. He is said to have requested that Manhattan Federal Court terminates his contract with the label.

"Cash Money has failed to provide a single accounting in respect of the exploitation of the Drake recordings, despite Drake being one of the best-selling recording artists in recent years," the suit stated.

Although Wayne later dropped the suit, his latest move suggests there is still bad blood between the Grammy award-winning rapper and Birdman, who has mentored him since he begun his career as a teen.