Like all classic drug-dealing movies taught us, it’s always the moment when you say one last time that they catch you. They were caught soon after Kanye’s Graduation and 50 Cent’s Curtis.
They were the robin hood of internet pirates. It’s an incredible story how a man with a bit of technical savvy and a lot of hustle positioned himself with an online organization that was like an internet mafia, a true organization that spent over a decade disrupting the status quo and it wasn’t for profit. Stephen Witt wrote of this phenomenon last year, in an article titled, “ The Man Who Broke The Music Business,” he speaks with Bennie Glover, a former employee of a CD manufacturing plant in the '90s. Napster and the rise of piracy was like a virus that slowly started to spread until every major artist was affected. As dial-up became broadband and the internet evolved with technological advances the leaking of albums became the music industry's Achilles heel. But it wasn’t until after 1993 that it started to become a casual occurrence. Pitchfork’s Eric Harvey wrote an article on the history of album leaks citing Bob Dylan’s Great White Wonder as one of the first album leaks. Paak’s Malibu didn’t leak. We haven’t seen many major releases this year arrive ahead of schedule but the few that we have seen only came days before the official drop. Kanye’s Life Of Pablo didn’t leak, Kendrick’s Untitled Unmastered didn’t leak, Anderson. If Adele went digital before physical, it’s possible that small change could’ve kept her music out of leakers hands. Unlike Adele, who is resisting the allure of streaming services, Drake was one of the first artists to jump in bed with Apple. Sales might not be a factor, both Adele and Taylor Swift had album leaks before their dates and sales seemed unfazed by the premature release. This is the biggest rap album of the year, a leak could ruin whatever promotion or lack of promotion he’s planning. Since Mo-G escaped his OVO tent he's been on Instagram and Reddit threatening to leak songs, makes you wonder if Drake’s downfall will come from in-house? Could the captain be losing control of his ship? Only takes one bad sailor to spark a mutiny.
By going a strictly digital route due to his partnership with Apple Music, Drake has been leak free of new material up until the leaks of two nights ago. The same can be said about What A Time To Be Alive.
You don’t want to miss out or have someone spoil the album as if it was a movie or a TV series. Waiting is a virtue that’s rarely practiced when it comes to downloading music, we want it immediately, fast, there’s an urgency because we have grown accustomed to group listening. Of course links surfaced the very second it dropped and in the heat of the moment you had to decide to buy or wait. Drake successfully kept "the mixtape" a secret, released it through iTunes and surprised the internet. Thus far, every Drake album has surfaced online a week before hitting the stores - every album except If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late.