Drop what you’re doing and go look up “Queen Carter” and “Sister Solana”. Rumor has it, unreleased music from Beyoncé and Sza are being released on various platforms under those, respective, monikers.
If you’re like me, immediately you began thinking: who is releasing this music, how did they get access to it, is this some kind of cruel joke, and what laws are they potentially breaking by blessing our ears? Are Russian hackers bored of messing with political algorithms, so they decided to move to music? Or perhaps, maybe this is a creative way for artists to put their unreleased content out there and make a (very) little money off of it?
Earlier today, TDE, Sza’s label, put a statement out, saying that the singles were leaked without permission. Stealing someone else’s intellectual property is unethical and wrong, but could whoever have done this (unless it’s the Russians) be on to something?
Singers record hundreds of songs, and a majority of them aren’t deemed “mainstream” enough, so they’re cut from the album. These songs then lay dormant. How cool would it be for artists to release the music that didn’t make the cut under a different moniker every time? Not only does this allow artists a heightened level of creative expression, but it also pacifies the consumers that want a new album two weeks after an artist drops an album (and if you’re part of the Navy, it’s been two years and counting). It also seems like a great way to create buzz and even test the waters when an artist is experimenting with a new sound.
There is a lot of grey area, especially for artists that are under a label, with doing something like that. However, we fans appreciate it!