Album leaks are supposed to be the enemy of the music industry yet they somehow continues to happen (unless you’re Beyoncé, she doesn’t play those games.)
Yesterday Angel Haze leaked her Dirty Gold album, forcing Universal Republic to move up the official drop date from March 2014 to Dec. 30.
Whether Haze prematurely released her debut to get the label’s attention, or because she was sincerely frustrated with the delay, she’s far from the only rapper to do so. In fact, it happens so often that it’s hard to tell which artists are actually being authentic.
Going against a record label until they cave has proved to be a winning tactic more than once (check out “Rage Against the Machine” story for more examples). Of course things get shaky when fans don’t actually support the leaked release, but that’s a whole other story.
Hit the gallery to see six rappers who threatened to leak their own music.
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Photos: Facebook
Jeezy
Jeezy went off on Def Jam last month for holding up his new album last month. Several days later his collaboration with Jay Z and Roc Nation was announced.
Publicity stunt?
M.I.A.
M.I.A. pulled the “I’m gonna leak my album” card in August after Matangi kept getting pushed back. Interscope Records got the message and released the project in November to little fanfare. The album debuted at No. 23 on the Billboard 200 pushing a dismal 15,000 copies in week one.
Danny Brown
M.I.A., Danny Brown also flipped out on his label in August. The Detroit native tweeted, “I’m a f*ck around and leak that sh*t myself” about Old, his third studio album.
The label released Old two months later.
Hopsin
Hopsin’s album threat was coupled with an unfortunate admission to wanting to commit suicide. Thankfully, the Los Angeles rapper didn’t keep his promise to take his own life after his third studio release, Knock Madness came out last month, and now says he’s moving to Australia for a while.
T-Pain
The “rapper turnt sanga” had it with his label in 2011. T-Pain said he’d leak RevolveR on Twitter, but pretty much changed his mind after he shared only two songs. RevolveR was released in December of that year.
Saigon
In 2007 Saigon spazzed on Atlantic Records for refusing to uncage The Greatest Story Never Told. Even with his mini-tantrum the Queens MC’s debut still didn’t see daylight for another four years.
***BONUS
50 Cent
Unlike the other listers, 50 Cent didn’t want to leak his whole album — just a single with Dr. Dre. The project, then titled Black Magic, stalled because “Interscope dropped the ball,” according to the G-Unit rapper.
This one was pretty much a burnt mission for 50 because we’re still waiting on that album (now called Street King Immortal), and he never actually dropped the Dre track.
