This past June — six years after a collection of his stolen demos were infamously uploaded to Bandcamp — the enigmatic British avant-pop artist Jai Paul reemerged with two new songs, an official release of the demos, and a letter. “I wanted to use this opportunity to share a little information about what happened regarding my music in April 2013,” he wrote, explaining that he was woken up in the middle of the night to news of the leak. There was a police investigation that led to arrests, and while he’d planned to finish and release many of the songs, the long-term effects caused “a breakdown of sorts.” Through therapy, he explained, he was recently able to process what happened and consider entering back into a public relationship with his fans and his music. “It was very difficult to deal with,” he wrote. “I felt...like no-one else seemed to view the situation in the same way I did: as a catastrophe.”

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Less than a week after Paul’s return, around 40 songs leaked from some of rap’s biggest names, including Young Thug, Playboi Carti, Future, and Quavo. According to posts on the rap-focused leak forum leakth.is, a little-known user claimed to have over 50 Young Thug songs for sale, and two other prominent leakers seemingly decided to unload their own personal vaults. The leak made a few minor headlines and, outside of Thug and Carti’s online fandoms, went under the radar — but the users on leakth.is celebrated the massive haul. In a thread titled “June 6 - A Day That Will Go Down In History,” one user commented, “We just witnessed some crazy shit boys.”

As of this writing, over 100 Young Thug songs, around 20 Playboi Carti songs, and around 20 Lil Uzi Vert songs have leaked since January of this year. All three rappers are preparing the release of long-awaited albums (So Much Fun, Whole Lotta Red, and Eternal Atake, respectively), and the leaks have likely included songs that were meant for these albums. Perhaps because all three artists are widely known to record so prolifically, there seems to be a lingering perception that the theft and distribution of their unreleased music is less important than, say, the leaks of Jai Paul’s demo in 2013 or Radiohead’s OK Computer sessions this past June. But leaked music seems to disproportionately plague today’s rap stars at a high volume and at great cost, delaying their albums, screwing over their producers, and weakening their ability to make money off their own work.