There really is a Twitter account called ‘Did Yeezus Leak Yet?‘, devoted to the single question of… Well, you can probably guess the question. On Friday, it finally got to tweet “YES”, as Kanye West’s much-anticipated new album appeared on torrent sites four days ahead of its official release in the US. Cue internet frenzy. Why is this news, though? Every album leaks nowadays, which is why so many are made available for legal streaming for a week or more before release. But ‘Yeezus’ is notable for the strong precautions taken by West and label Def Jam to prevent it from leaking – a strategy that worked with his 2011 ‘Watch the Throne’ collaboration with Jay-Z. Cue BuzzFeed’s “8 Reasons Why You Won’t Hear ‘Yeezus’ Early” article last Thursday, which had to be swiftly updated the next day when people started hearing it early. TMZ reports that Def Jam is on the warpath to track down the source of the leak and deliver “swift punitive action”, although the mainly-positive web buzz since the leak may yet work in Kanye’s favour. The album is being tipped for 500k sales in the US in its first week alone.
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