If a monumental artist like Drake drops any new material, the music corner of the internet pretty much halts and pays attention. So, when Drake and Beyoncé’s “Can I” leaked late Wednesday night, all eyes were on the new song possibly from Drake’s forthcoming Views from the 6. And you can imagine the surprise when an absolute unknown named Sal Houdini (pictured above) was featured on the track. Several sites posted the song introducing the new artist, but many on forums were skeptical of his inclusion, accusing him of tacking his verse onto the actual song and reaping the benefits.
Many even speculated that Sal Houdini was, in fact, the source of the leak, which could possibly get him in deep legal trouble. To diffuse that accusation, he immediately posted a photo to Instagram explaining that the version of the song “featuring” him was far from official.
https://instagram.com/p/27Q-YIy8Np/
So, those on the forums appear to be right; Sal took the actual song and seemingly added his own verse to it. And because the original leak (without Houdini) was removed so quickly, Sal’s version — “featuring” him — was perceived to be the official version everyone was waiting for. But as the origins of the track were discovered, Sal had to quickly backtrack to avoid any recourse. His version of the song has since been taken down from SoundCloud (but can still be found floating around the internet).
However, one mystery remains: Who leaked the original snippet that Sal repurposed? We can’t say if Houdini is guilty of the leak, or simply trying to pull a fast one after the fact. What do you think?
One thing’s for sure: For an artist with fewer than 100 SoundCloud followers, this is possibly the most notoriety he will ever have.
