E.G AND HIS NEW CO-HOST, Mz.LATASIA, GO IN ON GIRL THAT PUTS DOG IN MICROWAVE ALSO JAY-Z AND TIDAL'S IN (HOT WATER)!!...

he Norwegian Authority for Investigation of Economic and Environmental Crime (Okokrim) received allegations from Norwegian artist associations claiming potential loss of income from the manipulation of streaming data. “It has been made known through media coverage that the reports relate to Tidal’s streaming service and a suspicion that someone has manipulated the number of plays of some songs,” Okokrim Attorney Elisabeth Harbo-Lervik said in emailed comments. Okokrim said it had initiated an investigation to confirm or deny the alleged manipulation, according to Harbo-Lervik, and declined to give any further details on the investigation. Tidal’s lawyer Fredrik Berg at Fend, an Oslo-based law firm, said that Tidal is not suspected or charged. Berg declined to give any further comments. Jay-Z acquired Tidal in 2014 in a $56 million deal, to give his peers a greater share of the proceeds from streaming services, which now account for more than half of all U.S. record industry sales. During a presentation in 2015, he introduced fellow artists such as Rihanna and Alicia Keys as co-owners. The services has failed to rival platforms such as Spotify Technology SA and Apple Music. In 2017 Sprint Corp. acquired a 33 percent stake, following reports that Tidal was in discussions with Apple about a sale, according to The Wall Street Journal. A year after buying Tidal, Jay-Z sent a letter to previous owners Schibsted ASA, a Norwegian media company, accusing the seller of overstating subscriber numbers at the time of the deal. The latest complaints come from Norwegian copyright and music associations, following Dagens Næringsliv’s investigation published in 2018. The newspaper, along with Norwegian University of Science and Technology, analyzed data claimed to be Tidal’s raw streaming data. The university produced a report that concluded there had been manipulation of the data at particular times. A Bronx rapper has snagged the top spot on the US Billboard 200 chart after selling just 823 albums -- and posting 83 million on-demand streams. Industry tracker Billboard, whose chart ranks the most popular albums of the week in the United States, said Monday that A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie's album "Hoodie SZN" climbed to the top with the equivalent of 58,000 sales for the week ending January 10. That multi-metric sum includes streams and downloads of individual songs along with sales of the full 20-song album -- but according to Billboard, streams powered the ascent, while the sales set a record-low for an album that reached number one. The figures lay bare the ever-widening gap between the rapidly growing business of streaming and that of lethargic album sales. The 23-year-old rapper's record tops that of 3,481 copies and 84 million streams, which rapper 21 Savage set last week with his album "I Am > I Was." "Hoodie SZN," which came out December 21, is the Bronx artist's second full-length studio album and second visit to the Billboard's top 10, after his album "The Bigger Artist" peaking at number four in 2017. His sophomore album did not sell enough downloads -- "Hoodie SZN" has not been released in a physical format -- to make Billboard's sales-only chart, which saw Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper's "A Star Is Born" soundtrack take first place.