Whether you’d like to admit it or not, everyone with an Internet connection after 1994 has illegally downloaded movies or music on the Internet. You know it, I know it, RuPaul knows it — now, the incomparable drag diva wants you to stop it and start supporting the artists you love.
To coincide with the premiere of RuPaul’s Drag Race season 6, RuPaul dropped her sixth studio album, Born Naked on February 24. The album quickly reached the top of the iTunes dance album chart mostly because it’s incredible, but partly because Ru made sure it didn’t fall into the hands of music pirates.
Shortly before the release of Born Naked, Ru and his longtime album producer Lucian Piane flooded illegal torrent sites with decoy copies of the album that contain “stream-of-conscious monologues” where the music should be. Hilarity ensued.
About 20 seconds into the song “Freaky Money”, Ru’s decoy album starts talking:
How about we take this to the next level?
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You done stole my album! Uh uh, no you better don’t, hooker! You better get your tail on over to iTunes, baby! Hey, who hasn’t illegally downloaded an album? But when it’s somebody that you admire or that you want to support, child! How am I gonna keep my lace fronts on point if I can’t make a living doing what I’m doing with that ‘Freaky Money’?
Another 20 seconds into the track “Can I Get an Amen”, RuPaul reminisces as the music dies:
Now, I have done a duet with Martha Wash before. She asked me to do a duet with her…. She is one of my favorite singers of all time…
“We work so hard on this music,” RuPaul told Billboard in an interview. “So we thought, why not flood the torrents with a decoy album that educates consumers on why it’s important to buy music.”
Brilliant. Make sure you actually buy Born Naked on iTunes, queens.
Ditamo
lol
Uisce
The decoys could be 80 minutes of a feral cat getting beaten with a rusty wrench and still be better than a real RuPaul album.
CCTR
Brilliant and hilarious RuPaul
Lazycrockett
Why download or buy, just turn on Logo and that shit is all you’ll hear.
trelin
Ru’s best song will forever be “Snapshot” from Foxy Lady. I was obsessed with that song in Middle School. She looked incredible in the music video.
hotshot70
Call me old fashioned, but I prefer CDs. Having an actual physical item is the trophy. And, it’s harder to accidently erase a CD.
Charlie in Charge
Good move – take down them pirates!
Captain proton
in my country, iTunes is unavailable.
hudson
@hotshot70: im kinda with you there. plus, a cd is made up of wave files that contain all of the musical data. the files we download have a lot of the data stripped out- lots of the stuff that gives a track its depth and richness of sound.
HirsuteOne
@Uisce:
I’m confused. How would this sound any different than a domesticated cat being beaten with a well lubricated wrench?