Van Hunt - Popular

Last Friday, I went to Okayplayer.com and was shocked to find out that Van Hunt had an album that was released on 1-15-2008 that i was completely oblivious to. I quickly went to websites to see if there were any available at my local retail outlets. No Dice! Damn, what do i do? I have a few industry contacts and reached out to no avail. I then decided to check the web. I found out that there was a 4track EP (the Popular Machine) that was released in August that i was also completely ignorant of so I decided to go to the source; Van Hunt's myspace page. Once there I read these comments written on 1-14-08 a day before the release of the album:

"today was to be a day of celebration. it still can be; but, not for the same reason. i would once turn red from such an electrical surge as having a record on the way to the stores, $3,000,000 behind me in marketing and tour support and the president of the record label, and the manager of my career, making frantic phone calls on my behalf-trying to get me on the letterman show. "what will people think about the record?" talking to myself became casual parlance on the eve of record releases. not to mention preparing a new band for the album release party. an event where the "stars" of hollywood would line up against the south wall of the Roxy on sunset to get in and watch me sweat while they attempted to talk louder than our amplifiers could turn up.but, not this time.'Popular' is not on its way to the store. it is sitting in a box in my flat in LA, on 1/2 inch reels down in the blue note basement in new york and on about 30 laptops across this country and england - fans who spent anywhere from $30 to $70 to hear what i was thinking 15 months ago.you never know how much you mean to somebody until they break up with you. blue note and i are not seeing each other anymore. i am planning. i won't go into more than these details until after we work out the business of our parting. but, this year you will see, at least, one album and a book of short stories from me. i can not promise you that you will ever see the official release of 'Popular.' at this point i'm just hoping for MY release :)talk soon,v h ."

Damnnnnnn, and then i read this from an earlier blog:

"today is october 15th, 2007....somebody said my new record, due for a january 15th, 2008 release, has been leaked..."leaking like a roof? or a faucet?" i ask. "can we just turn it off?" what, exactly, does "leaked" mean? well, depending on who you ask, it could mean that some auction site is selling my record to the highest (and, in some cases, ONLY) bidder; and/or someone is sharing my music with their friends...like they do french fries or candy or germs. my thoughts?-that kind of violation is beyond my immediate control. let's be real. if you are going to give away promotional copies of your record-several months before it is to be released-then you know you are taking a chance that it will be "leaked." we wanted people to start talking about the record before it came out... well, we succeeded. as the creator of the music, my goal is to have as many people as possible hear the work. i wish there were even more people-all over the internet-screaming about how amazing their bootleg of 'popular' is. i want to be paid for my work. but, praise comes in many forms-verbal, physical and monetary. so, you may be a thief with high cultural tastes who has to download a copy of my record for free or you may be a person of impenetrable integrity who wants to wait and purchase the record next year or you may be too impatient and wealthy and don't mind paying $60 to an auction site for an early peek at the album or you might want to trade your clueless friend your extra copy of the hard to find early n'sync demos for a fresh van hunt download...i just want ya'll to LISTEN to the music. let it get into you; and, tell somebody-somebody who you know will understand-about the way it made you move. spread the word!"

So i knew it was slinking around the internet never to be released, similar to Bilal's sophmore project, Love for Sale, or Q-tip's sophmore and junior(?) projects, Kamaal the Abstract and Live at The Renaissance, but Determination is the Father of results...and here it is. Share and if it's released PLEASE BUY. it's a great project

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=J7BHA8B0

Check out "N The Southern Shade"...I think it's appropriate for a blog written by a Southern Boy