500,000 Pirated Copies Of Kanye's New 'Life Of Pablo' Album Isn't Helping His $53 Million 'Personal Debt'

J.E. Reich, Tech Times 16 February 2016, 02:02 pm

Only days after the Feb. 14 drop of rapper Kanye West's lauded album The Life of Pablo, which was exclusively released on the streaming app Tidal, it looks like Yeezy fans are taking to other sources to get their hands on his seventh studio release. According to Torrent Freak, fans upset over the "limited availability" of Pablo have taken to other sources to obtain it, resulting in over 500,000 pirated copies of the record so far.

The news comes after a West-centric weekend, which was launched by a tweet sent by Ye on Feb. 13, which came hours before the Life of Pablo drop. Moments before the debut of the album's first track "Ultralight Beam," which Kanye performed on Saturday Night Live, he informed fans via Twitter of his $53 million in "personal debt"; a few days later, West took to social media to ask Mark Zuckerberg for financial help.

I write this to you my brothers while still 53 million dollars in personal debt... Please pray we overcome... This is my true heart...

— KANYE WEST (@kanyewest) February 14, 2016

Mark, I am publicly asking you for help... — KANYE WEST (@kanyewest) February 15, 2016

World, please tweet, FaceTime, Facebook, instagram, whatever you gotta do to get Mark to support me... — KANYE WEST (@kanyewest) February 15, 2016

one of the coolest things you could ever do is to help me in my time of need

— KANYE WEST (@kanyewest) February 15, 2016

While Yeezy did not disclose the source of his debt, the day after Feb. 15's Grammy Award ceremonies he alluded to an unnamed party who "tried to use it against [him] in negotiations."

However, according to TMZ, Kanye's "debt" isn't debt at all — rather, it's the amount of money Yeezy put into his own ventures, like the $40 million he put into his own vanity fashion lines.

The rapper also declared on Feb. 15 that his album would "never be on Apple," and yet again would only be available to stream and download through Tidal.

My album will never never never be on Apple. And it will never be for sale... You can only get it on Tidal.

— KANYE WEST (@kanyewest) February 15, 2016

If you haven't already listened to Kanye's Life of Pablo — pirated or otherwise — watch his Saturday Night Live performance of the album opener "Ultralight Beam" in the video clip below.