Trap Star Daily News: UPDATE: Lil Wayne's "Rebirth" Summer Release Date Disputed

Thursday, January 7, 2010

UPDATE: Lil Wayne's "Rebirth" Summer Release Date Disputed

News: UPDATE: Lil Wayne's "Rebirth" Summer Release Date Disputed
Thursday, Jan 7, 2010 6:03PM

Written by Rosario Harper

After initial reports of Lil Wayne's Rebirth being pushed to summer 2010, the rapper's record company has said the rock project will be released as scheduled.

According to Universal Motown, Rebirth will be released next month.

Lil Wayne's Rebirth has seen constant delays over the past year, but for once, the album is not being pushed back. Contrary to reports that it had been moved to June, the rapper's oft-delayed foray into rock is still scheduled for release on February 2, Universal Motown confirms to Rap-Up.com. Exactly one week later on February 9, Wayne is likely to be sentenced and report to prison for almost a year on gun charges. (Rap-Up)
Reports earlier this week showed the album coming out in June.

Amazon accidentally shipped a small number of Lil Wayne pre-orders, and now, the Rebirth album is nowhere to be found on the site. The pre-order is also unavailable on the iTunes Store, though the first-run version is totally available through unauthorized online channels. Meanwhile, Walmart is listing the release date as June 22nd. The earlier consensus was that Rebirth would finally emerge during the first quarter. (Digital Music News)
The album was also believed to be coming out sometime in the first quarter of 2010.

Neither the crew album nor the experimental passion project has a proud commercial legacy in hip-hop. But for Rebirth, at least, Lil Wayne's label had sizable expectations. According to Billboard, around one million copies were printed, one-third of which were distributed to retailers. (Lil Wayne's last album, Tha Carter III, has been certified triple platinum, meaning three million copies were shipped.) For 500 or so fans, the physical CD of the original Rebirth is a collectible. For the untold thousands who downloaded the album's songs free, they're just grist for the mill, placeholders until something else comes along, preferably better. According to a representative for Universal Motown Records, a new version of Rebirth is now slated to be released in the first quarter of 2010. (New York Times)
Despite the project initially being pushed to February, early copies were released late last year.

About 500 Amazon customers who pre-ordered the album are enjoying the record already, thanks to a shipping mishap. According to sources and an e-mail to Billboard from an Amazon customer, the online merchant sent copies of the album to some customers who pre-ordered "Rebirth." The album began arriving in mailboxes on Monday, Dec. 14, despite a change in the street date from Dec. 21 to February 1. Although Amazon received the word to return the Lil Wayne album, supposedly about 500 copies were sent to customers. An Amazon spokesman didn't respond to an e-mail request for a comment. (Billboard)