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We Predicted The Release Of Jai Paul’s Debut Album

Last week we wrote an article predicting that the album would come out this month. Listen to the record inside and hear why we think it's a legitimate release.
Ryan Bassil
London, GB

Last week we published an article titled “Is Jai Paul’s Debut Album Coming Out This Month?” and on Saturday night the album slithered unto the Internet.

Did we predict the future? Like, tonnes, son.

Since I was up all night to get lucky (Holla Pharrell!) / partaking in a nefarious den of activities involving red wine and a self esteem issue, I was awake when a tip off regarding the album’s release was sent to my Twitter account. It felt like a gift sent from the Gods. But I couldn’t be sure about the authenticity, so, I unstrapped my backside from the sofa and logged on to my computer to take a look.

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And sure, enough, there it was. A 16 track album, featuring both old and new material, had been uploaded to a bandcamp page in Jai Paul’s name. I slept like a baby that night. All was right in the world.

Waking up this morning, I found that a lot of websites had already posted the link the Jai’s album. But, despite no official word from XL, few have delved into the legitimacy and furore surrounding the release. Because writing should be more than a faux-grandoise act of copy and pasting, we’ve compiled a list of reasons pointing to its authenticity.

APRIL 13 IS A SIGNIFICANT DATE FOR JAI PAUL

While floating through a forum, I found that April 13th holds a semblance of significance for Jai. It’s the date that his website was first registered, the date that it expires and the date that he last updated it.

Registered on: 13-Apr-2010

Expiry date - 13-Apr-2014

Last updated: 13-Apr-2012

In the past, Jai has always released songs in April. It’s a point that we made in our article suggesting that an album release was imminent.

XL RECORDS A&R REP IMRAN AHMED SENT OUT AN AMBIGUOUS TWEET YESTERDAY MORNING

Surprise!

— Imrania (@lllmran) April 14, 2013

Noun: An unexpected or astonishing event, fact, or thing.

Need we say anything else?

THE EMAIL ADDRESS ASSOCIATED WITH THE BANDCAMP ACCOUNT LINKS TO A JAI PAUL FACEBOOK PAGE

Late last night, after sifting through Jai Paul tweets, it became apparent that the receipt for the album was linked to the email address, . I emailed the address with a few questions. I wasn’t expecting a reply and I didn’t get one. But, Crack In The Road - who originally unearthed the albums release - have done an impressive amount of investigating. Remember putting in a second email address for web services to send your password to if you forget it? It’s always seemed useless to me, because if you’re dumb enough to forget your password then you may as well be neutered. But, it turns out that I’m wrong, you’re right, and they are useful, because the second email address for sloanerangers account links to . An email address that Crack In The Road found links to a Facebook profile, created in 2009, that lists Jai Paul’s MySpace in the ‘About’ section. If this is a troll, then they’ve been planning this for over 4 years. Is that really possible? Think about it.

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THE RECORD FEATURES NEW MATERIAL

Although the tracklist includes old material and a few tracks taken off his retired MySpace page, the record also features a handful of new material. The most noteable being a lavishly gorgeous cover of Jennifer Page’s “Crush” that sounds like it’s been forged from a mix bag of crushed love hearts and pharmaceuticals. A track so nice I’d like to spend some time alone with it, not to get sleazy, but because it’s so mind bendingly interesting.

Jai Paul has released two records over the space of four years. It’d be almost rude to suggest that he’d share his material with someone else. But it would be an insult to suggest he’d share it with someone who’d have the balls to upload it to the internet without his permission. You and I are but the mere bubble gum imprint on the sole of Jai’s Versace soled sandal. If Jai wants to put his record out, he’s going to put it out and ain’t no one going to tell him any different.

SO…

That’s it. The album’s out and we can all breathe a collective sigh of release. I’ll see you next time around when Jay Electronica decides to pay his internet bill.

But, before I go…

You’d think after four years that Jai Paul could have come up with some track names.

Follow Ryan on Twitter @RyanBassil

Read our feature where we predicted the album's release here:

Is Jai Paul’s Debut Album Coming Out This Month?