Rarely does a day go by where you don’t read about an artist, label or the RIAA complaining about albums leaking to the internet and the subsequent bootlegging. For a high profile leak there is a lot of publicity that goes along with it. When Lupe Fiasco’s Food & Liquor leaked a few months early this spring it was the talk of the town for a solid week. In fact, it’s safe to say that the leaking of his album was the best publicity his album received. It generated more buzz than any of his singles, any of the critical acclaim and more than his Jay-Z guest appearance.

That said, it was only natural that someone was gonna get the bright idea to use “the leak” to their advantage. Def Jam and Jay-Z have done just that. This past Friday the first track from Jay-Z’s drooled over comeback album leaked; Show Me What You Got. Something was fishy though.

As you can tell from our audio section, we get our hands on leaked music very quickly, basically the moment it becomes remotely available to anyone. On an average leak we’ll probably have it at least a day before the average person can hunt it down on the net, and usually at least an hour or so quicker than other well connected people. And while we were the first site to get the song up (recognize bitches), it spread like wildfire within the hour. Radio stations from coast to coast were playing it right away, it was on digital record pools, shit that does not normally happen. I see how it works time and time again, this song would not have spread so quickly unless it was meant to.

Then in no time, barely after the song leaked, XXL online has a piece with Jay and Just Blaze talking about the song. Now obviously XXL is well connected, but you think they got in depth statements from Jay and Just within the hour of the song leaking? Hell no. Then came the reports that Def Jam was “furious” about the song leaking and were investigating the culprit, using the FBI no less.

Bullshit. They leaked it, it was all a publicity stunt. And a great one. One that will rarely work and was perfect for this situation. For a single song leaking to create a big buzz it has to be from a huge artist and a highly anticipated album, two criteria Jay obviously fills. I know people are gonna say “fuck Gay-Z, he does this shit for his album and doesn’t do it for ______ “(insert Method Man, The Roots, Ludacris, etc). Thing is, Method Man’s single leaked too, but it just isn’t gonna create this kind of publicity. Method Man isn’t as popular as Jay-Z, few are, and Meth wasn’t making his daily speculation, first album since his “retirement.” This was a unique situation that lead to a unique opportunity.

Don’t think any of this means that Def Jam has since admitted to leaking the song out, they haven’t, and I’m sure if I inquire they’ll stick to their story. I’m also sure they aren’t the first ones to leak their own material, but they are certainly the first to do it to this magnitude. Any bets on how quickly we see the video for this song? Just wait and see.

Just as Just Blaze borrowed from Public Enemy for the song, I will too…

Don’t believe the hype.