Culture

Angel Haze Leaked Her Album So That Her Label Would Finally Sell It

A casual observer might say that the most surprising musical release in the past seven days was Beyoncé's new album, but those people would be wrong—at least Beyonce's record label knew about it.

By Brian Feldman
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This article is from the archive of our partner .

A casual observer might say that the most surprising musical release in the past seven days was Beyoncé's new album, but those people would be wrong—at least Beyonce's record label knew about it. On Wednesday morning, fed up with constant delays, up-and-coming rapper Angel Haze leaked her own album, Dirty Gold, online without the consent of her label, Island Records

Leading up the leak, Haze expressed her frustration in a series of tweets, writing in part, "It's so annoying that my label could tell me that if I f***ing finished my album before the summer it would be out this year," and "I did not promise an album and not deliver, unlike every fucking one else. I sat my ass down and came up with this music WHEN I HAD NOTHING."

So she uploaded the album to SoundCloud.

Haze's SoundCloud page has been crucial to her success online. Back in October, Flavorwire asserted that her 30 Gold freestyle-a-day project made her the most important rapper of the year.

Within an hour of showing up online, the album had disappeared again, likely pulled with a copyright claim from Island. For a while, it seemed that Haze had lost the battle, and would have to wait again until her original March release date.

Then earlier tonight, Haze put out another series of updates:

It's coming in just under the wire, but it looks like Haze's album will be out this year.

This article is from the archive of our partner The Wire.