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Digital Releases
Drake: Leaks are good
By CMU Editorial | Published on Wednesday 9 November 2011
Drake isn’t worried that his new album ‘Take Care’ (or at least the majority of the songs on it) has leaked ahead of its release next week. In fact, he thinks it’s a good thing. Well, that’s what he said prior to the leak, anyway.
Speaking to Billboard in an interview conducted last month, the rapper said: “I think that giving people the opportunity to judge before they go and buy, I think that can only help. There’s a loyal fan base that’s gonna go and support you just based off the fact that they want to own a copy of your material, and they know what it means to give you that one sale, and they hope that there’s another hundred, two hundred, three hundred, four hundred, five hundred thousand people that are gonna do the same thing. And then there’s genuinely the people who heard it that night and were like: ‘Yo, I need to support this, I need to go buy it, I need to own this'”.
Referring to J Cole’s ‘Cole World: The Sideline Story’ album, which leaked and then went to number one in the US, Drake added: “His leak was like ten days before, seven days before. I think those leaks are very beneficial to artists who have the product, who can reel people in with their music as opposed to turning people off”.
Asked if he anticipates leaks, he continued: “Yeah, always. I look forward to leaks – knock on wood. I shouldn’t probably, but I do. Like I said, if it’s a reasonable leak, I look forward to it. We’re all sitting here in the studio like: ‘Oh man the night this leaks, it’s gonna be so crazy!’ People talk about, ‘Are you gonna go on the internet? Are you gonna stay off the internet? What are you gonna do?'”
And referencing the fact that most early leaks originate from studios, he added: “[Producer Noah ’40’ Shebib] set us up a system for this album that I think worked very well. We’ve suffered no leaks. I’ve heard rumour of a couple records floating around out there that people are just listening to for their own personal enjoyment, like early demos and shit like that. But most of the records that they’re talking about are features, so you know, usually when you start sending to other camps, stuff gets a little messy. 40 protects the music [from leaking too early] really well, and I think God willing I get like the same thing I’m talking about, like a ten day leak. And that’s something I’d be extremely excited about because I feel like if people get the opportunity to live with the music for a week before they go buy it, it’s only gonna help me, not hurt me. So I’m looking forward to hearing the feedback from everyone – that’s gonna be an exciting night when it comes out”.
So, there you go. Just as Drake hoped, ‘Take Care’ is available from your unlicensed source of choice now.
