Always a stickler on preventing leaks, Kanye West and his careful camp appeared to have changed their tune for the rapper's sixth studio album Yeezus, which leaked online Friday ahead of its June 18 release.
The leak wasn't surprising. Let's take West's impromptu Yeezus listening party in New York City this week, for example, which Mashable attended. As the album blared from the speakers and his light gray T-shirt progressively turned darker as sweat secreted off his body, the 100 or so attendees inside Milk Studios freely used their phones to record their surroundings — most importantly, the sounds.
When asked whether attendees could record audio and video, someone at West's label said they didn't have any qualms with the music leaking. West continued this nonchalant mentality when he grabbed the mic at several occasions to talk about Yeezus.
"I have this new strategy. It's called no strategy," West said. "This album is all about giving. This whole process is all about giving no f*cks at all."
In the past, this entire process was infused with precautionary measures to prevent online pirates from releasing his upcoming music. His team limited the number of people who worked on the album to avoiding transferring files via email, stored files on secure external hard drives and skipped the digital pre-order process.
Those layers of security seemingly slipped up — or simply weren't employed this time.
I'm at @kanyewest's private listening session for his album #Yeezus. We can record videos 'cause he doesn't care if it leaks before June 18.
— Brian A. Hernandez (@BAHjournalist) June 11, 2013
"The whole way this whole album was put together, the amount of producers that came together for it, and the way we worked on this shit really collectively, collaboratively, we really didn't give a f*ck what nobody else said — outside looking in or anything. We just wanted to make the best product possible," West said.
Mashable reached out to Island Def Jam Music Group and the label's parent company, Universal Music Group, for comment about Friday's Yeezus leak and whether distribution plans will shift because of the leak. We will update this post accordingly when we receive a response.
Daft Punk's Random Access Memories leaked in May, more than a week before its release, prompting Columbia Records to make the album available to stream on iTunes.
At Monday's event, West said that Daft Punk produced four of Yeezus's tracks.
West also slammed the music industry's marketing tactics in response to complaints he hasn't really promoted Yeezus in traditional ways for a major artist. There's no single for the radio or music video, and the album isn't available for pre-order (although it was listed on iTunes before being quickly taken down).
"I've got an idea on how to sell more music, it's called make better music," West said, inciting loud cheers.
"What I said last night is we drop this sh*t June 18," he added. "This ain't about waiting 'til August and having a big this and that. It's about delivering this shit for y'all now to go to work to, ride to, listen to and working out and sh*t or whatever ya'll doing."
The listening party included the four songs already available online ("New Slaves," "Black Skinhead," "I Am God" and "Can't Handle My Liquor") — via Saturday Night Live clips and footage captured at last weekend's Governor's Ball — as well as the rest of the album.
West's boldest statement at the event, which could reflect his changing attitude toward the distribution and security of his music, played off the "I Am God" track.
"West was my slave name and #Yeezus is my god name." ~ @KanyeWest
— Brian A. Hernandez (@BAHjournalist) June 11, 2013
Disclaimer: The video contains explicit language.
Image via Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images
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