When Paul arrived at the start of the decade, he found himself among a vanguard of innovative and ambitious musicians who were opening up a dialog with the major pop establishment. Both tracks, which also appear on Bait Ones, are at once propulsive and elusive, like quicksand pumping out of a speaker cone, with Paul’s mumbling falsetto self-consciously buried in the mix (in the recent note, he mentioned, “It will always be a little painful for me to listen to myself.”) Here was a guy in his early 20s spiking his obsessions with J Dilla, Michael Jackson, and D’Angelo with uncanny pauses, flyby instrument breaks, and laser zaps-a meticulous introvert whose slippery sound was soon being sampled by Drake and Beyoncé. On the couple of songs he properly released before the leak, “ BTSTU (Edit)” and “ jasmine (demo),” he bent pop music to his off-kilter will. The official release of the unofficial document Paul has decided to call Leak 04-13 (Bait Ones)- Bait Ones being a slangy working title for the project during the original sessions-brings with it a sense of closure, of finally wrangling some dominion over chaos.Īn ability to control the uncontrollable is part of what made Jai Paul’s music so mesmerizing in the first place. He wrote of a withdrawal, a breakdown, and a slow trek toward recovery, aided by therapy.

“Looking back, it’s sad to think about what could have been, but it is what it is and I had to let go.” Elsewhere in the statement, he candidly discussed the seismic breach of trust he felt following the initial leak as well as an unmoored feeling of being perpetually misunderstood.

“I’ve grown to appreciate that people have enjoyed that music and lived with it, and I accept that there is no way to put that shit back in the box,” the 30-year-old wrote.

On June 1, along with two totally new songs, Paul put this work that was once ripped from his hands onto streaming services as well as his own website, alongside a heartfelt note to fans.

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