Jai Paul album labelled “an illegal leak”, statement to be released shortly

With rumours bubbling the last few weeks of a potential Jai Paul album, the internet were induced into panic over the weekend when a Bandcamp account under the artist’s name started selling the supposed aforementioned record for £7. Too good to be true? It seems so as the elusive musician himself has come out calling the LP an “illegal leak”.

“I will be releasing a statement later today about the illegal leak. I have not released a new record,” Paul told Dazed journalist Owen Myers over email. Meanwhile, sources close to Jai told Best Fit yesterday that the record was “not really by him”.

The 16 track collection of songs/demos included what seemed to be a re-recorded version of the 2012 XL single ‘Jasmine’ as well as Paul’s ‘BTSU’, the song that got us all excited about him in the first place.

It was regarded as a “masterpiece” by some, or at least one of the most impressive mixtapes to be released this year. We’ll bring you more on this story as it develops.

Update: It now appears that Jai Paul had his laptop stolen, with the full statement expected at 3pm UK time.

Another update: Paul just tweeted: “To confirm: demos on bandcamp were not uploaded by me, this is not my debut album. Please don’t buy. Statement to follow later. Thanks, Jai”