The internet was thrown into a frenzy last night after what fans quickly identified as old Beyoncé demos were released under the alias Queen Carter.
There were two “albums” of some sort released, which whoever was beyond the Queen Carter moniker titled Have Your Way and Back Up, Rewind. Each featured ten songs, including demos and previously unreleased tracks from earlier Beyoncé eras. There was also a single song titled “Control” released on its own.
\u201cWORLD STOP!!! SOMEONE UPLOADED BEY\u2019S UNRELEASED SONGS UNDER\n\u201cQUEEN CARTER\u201d ASDFGHJKL\u201d— Scottie (@Scottie) 1545366157
The songs streamed on Spotify and Apple Music for several hours before being pulled, but as of right now, playlists seem to still be available on YouTube.
Was this another Beyoncé stunt? A theft? A hack?
While the quick takedown suggests whoever posted the music was not authorized to do so, Beyoncé and her team have yet to comment publicly, so we can’t say for sure.
However, Bey’s previously unreleased music wasn’t the only leak recently.
SZA also had “new music” posted to Spotify and Apple Music earlier this month — an album credited to "Sister Solana" and referred to as Comethru, which was actually a set of demos she worked on in 2015.
In this case, we do know SZA was a victim of theft, which makes it even more likely that Queen Bey was, too.
\u201cThere 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. \n\n-Punchino from TDE\u201d— Punch TDE (@Punch TDE) 1545357218
So, were both albums stolen and released by the same person? Who did it? Hopefully we find out, but in the meantime, theorize away…
\u201cMathew Knowles releasing Queen Carter\u201d— Allie is the #1 CUFF IT stan (@Allie is the #1 CUFF IT stan) 1545362604
None— Bigotry, Not Bootstraps\u2122 (@Bigotry, Not Bootstraps\u2122) 1545370186
\u201cI\u2019m going to need who ever is behind Queen Carter to leak Rihanna\u2019s unreleased music\u201d— Rebecca JeanBaptiste (@Rebecca JeanBaptiste) 1545363489