Hold up! Those new Beyoncé albums are fakes.
On Thursday night, a pair of new records appeared under the name of Queen Carter.
The two new projects appeared on major streaming services Apple Music and Spotify, to huge rejoice from fans who presumed – alongside major media companies – that the records were from Bey herself.
But as soon as they celebrated, the Beyhive was despairing – the Beyonce records transpired to be fake.
In all the fanfare around a new release from Queen Bey, fans failed to pick up that the new projects, ‘Back Up, Rewind’ and ‘Have Your Way’, consisting previously recorded songs and old B-sides.
Vigilant fans questioned why Beyoncé would release via Apple and Spotify, competitors to her husband Jay-Z’s streaming service, Tidal.
Both of the 10-track albums credited to Queen Carter were removed from the streaming platforms just hours after they appeared.
Bey wasn’t the only artist victim to a fake-leak on Thursday; on the same night, almost the exact same scenario played out with SZA.
Old tracks from SZA were released under the “alias” Sister Solana.
There is no new SZA album out. Old songs were stolen and leaked. We are currently fixing the issue. Please feel free to continue enjoying Ctrl until the next album is ready.
-Punchino from TDE
— Punch TDE (@iamstillpunch) December 21, 2018
President of Top Dawg Entertainment Punch took to Twitter to confirm that the tracks had been stolen and released without permission: “There is no new SZA album out. Old songs were stolen and leaked, We are currently fixing the issue. Please feel free to continue enjoying Ctrl until the next album is ready.”
Representatives from Beyoncé, Spotify and Apple Music are yet to comment on the incident.
