I’ve blogged about my favorite rapper, artist, musician before, Lil Wayne, when he consciously leaked tracks prior to his upcoming album in understanding the effect that would have on spreading his music, encouraging sales, and more commerce around his entire existence. Wayne embraced piracy, or as Gilberto Gil calls it, “peer-acy.”

Well, now Lil Wayne’s latest album, Tha Carter III has been leaked 10 days before the album is to be released on June 10 (and through btjunkie its quite easy to find). So, who did the leaking? Since he leaked, er, released, er, leaked tracks prior to Tha Carter III back before Christmas 2007, these are supposedly the real tracks that some DJ released out of anger for Wayne dissing on DJ’s. The Wikipedia article clarifies:

On May 30th-31st, Tha Carter III was leaked internationally. The first of the leaks were distributed on May 30th at around 8pm where five songs from the track list were available on the internet. Hours later on May 31st at 12am-1am the whole album was leaked and posted on various websites for free download. The DJ responsible for the leaks was DJ Chuck T who retaliated for an interview conducted by Wayne, where he discredited all DJ’s and the mixtape scene days before.

Do you all think this is true? Wayne owes mucho to DJ Drama and the entire mixtape scene. I find it hard to believe that Wayne would diss DJ’s without a good reason. I could think of some good reasons to diss DJs after seeing gramps DJ in Beijing a couple of weeks ago. I’m talking about DJ Cut Chemist mixing music from 20-30 years ago! Yes, that is how old Hip-Hop is now! Amazing.