Jay Z Jokes in Court That He Forgot Tidal Existed

Jay Z made an appearance in court on Wednesday (October 14) to take the stand for the first time in a trial on his song “Big Pimpin” and his music service Tidal came up during the testimony.

The 45-year-old rapper is being sued for allegedly sampling a song by Egyptian composer Baligh Hamdi without permission.

“I didn’t think there was a sample in it. Timbaland presented me with a track. I didn’t even think about there being a sample,” Jay said (via THR) in response to a lawyer for the Hamdi family. When asked why he didn’t know the song was sampled, he said, “That’s not what I do. I make music.”

Jay‘s lawyer asked him to elaborate on what he does for a living.

“I make music, I’m a rapper, I’ve got a clothing line, I run a label, a media label called Roc Nation, with a sports agency, music publishing and management. Restaurants and nightclubs … I think that about covers it,” Jay responded.

“I’m not so sure. You have a music streaming service [Tidal], don’t you?” his lawyer responded.

Jay then said, “Yeah, yeah. Forgot about that.”