The upcoming album from rapper Lil Wayne has now been leaked, thanks to a spat involving mixtape deejays.
The album, The Carter III, first started floating online late last week, in its entirety. The unauthorized pre-release was allegedly orchestrated by a member of the mixtape community, a group that the rapper blasted in a recent interview. “I created the mixtape game but I’m not into that no more,” the rapper told Foundation Magazine. “F**k you if you’re a mixtape deejay. Y’all are selling me out, I ain’t with that.”
Mixtapes were originally pre-release mixes copied to cassettes, though the format has now shifted to CD-Rs and bled into the internet. After the controversy surfaced, Lil Wayne attempted to clarify – or modify – the comments during a subsequent Sirius Satellite Radio interview with DJ Drama. But the damage had already been done, and the leak occurred shortly after the initial interview surfaced.
It will remain difficult to assess the overall sales impact created by the leak, though the controversy could raise more awareness on the new release. In the case of Usher, who also experienced a leak, first-week sales appear solid.
The Lil Wayne comments highlight the tension between labels, more established artists, and mixtape deejays. On one level, the mixtape represents a strong and crucial promotional outlet, though more established artists sometimes complain that mixtape deejays unfairly profit from their work. In early 2007, the RIAA raided the offices of DJ Drama, a highly-controversial anti-piracy move.