Jai Paul

Six years since Jai Paul recorded the demo for “BTSU,” and three years since signing to XL Records, the Rayners Lane-based enigmatic pop mastermind has surprise-uploaded what is presumably his debut LP to Bandcamp, where you can hear it in full and buy it for ₤7. In an interview with NPR last year, XL label owner Richard Russell said, “The way [Jai Paul is] going about things is, I think for many, baffling. But it’s how he’s going about things, and as such it can only be right because it’s his way of doing it.” Apparently, and god bless him for it. The record consists of 16 untitled tracks, one of which—track nine—is a fully-formed version of his 2012 demo “Jasmine.”
Update: It’s worth pointing out that XL has yet to publicly acknowledge the album, which could either suggest something fishy afoot or simply be keeping slyly consistent with Paul’s atypical “way of going about things.” Crack in the Road, the blog that discovered the release’s existence, has linked the upload to Jai Paul’s email address. In any case, the album’s origins and officialness seem like something of a technicality: for the first time in history you can own 40 minutes of Jai Paul’s music, and Jai Paul seems to be getting paid for it.