There have been few releases as puzzling as Mos Def‘s Tru3 Magic. After being pushed back from month to month (beginning in September), it looked as if it was finally dropping in early December. Until it was pushed back at the last moment until January 9th. But then days before its cancelled December day of release it leaked, so Geffen decided to rush it out.
So on December 29th, a Friday and a day completely lost in the busy holiday season, the album was released. There was no album cover, no liner notes, no production credits, an effort to preserve paper the label said. Well now the label is calling it a limited edition pre-release and it has been pulled off of the shelves. A Geffen representative told MTV, when asked if the album officially came out, that “it did and it didn’t.”
Obviously, the album was rushed out to combat bootlegging (like it would make any difference), a decision agreed upon by the label and Mos (y’all couldn’t at least stick a cover in there?). Then everyone realized it was a terrible day to release an album and they had no time to promote it, so they changed their mind. But it was too late, the album had been shipped to stores already and apparently sending the album back is at the discretion of the store.
So now the situation is another release of the album, despite this one charting (at just 11, 004 units), and the single Undeniable getting a Grammy nod. Tru3 Magic will come out again in the Spring, this time with a few more songs and, apparently, an enviromentally crippling cover and liner notes.
