Jay Z has defended his new streaming service Tidal in Hova-style, in front of fans at a gig.

The Holy Grail rapper, who founded the high definition service and app, hit out at critics and doubters as he played a private show B-Sides for Tidal subscribers at New York’s Terminal 5.

Before performing B-sides of his hits, the 45-year-old music mogul – real name Shawn Carter – claimed he was being depicted as “the bad guy” for not going with the flow.

Jay Z, aka Hova, then turned on Google and YouTube for underpaying artists, alleging: “(They) pay you a tenth of what you supposed to get,” adding: “You know when I work I ain’t your slave, right?”

He also referred to Beat’s co-founder Jimmy Iovine, who was previously accused of trying to lure high-profile artists away from Tidal, and those who dared complain about Tidal’s high prices.

“You bought nine iPhones and Steve Jobs is rich, Phil Knight worth trillions you still bought those kicks… I had to talk to myself, ‘Hov you used to it, It’s politics as usual.”

Stars such as Beyonce, Madonna, Rihanna, Kanye West, Taylor Swift, Calvin Harris, Usher, Nicki Minaj, Jack White and Coldplay joined Jay Z to launch Tidal in March, but the high prices and the high-profile backers have come under fire.

It’s not the first time that the rapper has come to Tidal’s defence.

He made a rare return to Twitter to hit out at its critics on April 26.