Kanye West - Kanye West Cruel Summer Mixtape Leaks As Nominations Fly In

Kanye West’s Cruel Summer album leaked last night, five days before its full release this Tuesday (September 18th) reports The Baltimore Sun.

We won’t provide a link, but those of you savvy enough will be able to listen to the new compilation, oddly titled Cruel Summer, considering it’s nearly October. Maybe autumn is some kind of Cruel Summer, in a way. Anyway, you can also buy it on iTunes, if you’re that way inclined, but you’ll have to wait. It serves as a sobering incitement of the music business and people’s willingness to swap their hard earned cash for CD’s, that leak dates are often given more press than actual album release dates. Today’s superstars are making more money from live performances, advert music and increasingly, judging talent shows to pay the bills. Mansion sized bills.

Kanye West can console himself with two facts; A, loads of people will obviously still buy his new mix-tape and B, he’s just gleamed 17 nominations for the BET 2012 Hip Hop awards, despite not releasing a new album of solo material since 2010. Behind him with 13 nominations is 2 CHAINZ, who has released his own material recently, with Drake coming in third with 11 nominations, who has, again, released some stuff of late. It just goes to show how big Kanye West is in hip hop, that he can accumulate so much praise whilst seemingly just hanging out with Kim Kardashian.