Two weeks before its release, Jay-Z&rsquo;s 11th studio album leaked. Not even hip-hop&rsquo;s most acclaimed emcee is immune to pirating.</p><p>Tweets, blogs and podcasts sprouted up reviewing the much anticipated &ldquo;Blueprint 3.&rdquo; That, of course, fueled even more downloads. With so many links floating around the Web, it was hard to resist temptation. But I did.</p><p>For others, it was just too easy. Some 400,000 people ripped it off BitTorrent, according to TorrentFreak, a blog dedicated to breaking news about the file-sharing world. So Jay-Z&rsquo;s release date was pushed up a few days, and the album came out last week. </p><p>Despite pirating, Jay-Z&rsquo;s 9/11 benefit concert at Madison Square Garden sold out in less than 15 minutes, and Billboard estimates the disc will top the charts this week.</p><p>Meka Udoh says piracy doesn&rsquo;t hurt Jay. It&rsquo;s a part of music culture that the industry should use for gain.</p><p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s needed in today&rsquo;s climate,&rdquo; says Meka, co-founder of <a href="http://www.2dopeboyz.com">www.2dopeboyz.com</a>, a leading hip-hop blog. &ldquo;Nobody is making money selling records. A lot of new artists look to leak stuff with the hopes of building buzz.&rdquo;</p><p>Greg Enemy is one of those indie artists. But he bought Jay-Z&rsquo;s album instead of downloading it for nothing.</p><p>&ldquo;There&rsquo;s something about buying it when the artist wants you to have it,&rdquo; says Greg, 21, a Kansas City rapper and producer. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s such a novelty these days. I have bought very few albums over the past few years, but when I do, there is presentation. I open it a certain way, put it in my car and ride around. It&rsquo;s important. There&rsquo;s a feeling that comes with it when you buy an album.&rdquo;</p><p>Still, Greg (www.myspace .com/gregenemy) sees how leaking an album, whether intentional or not, can be helpful.</p><p>&ldquo;As an artist, you put music out for free because you want people to hear it and get familiar with it so they will buy it one day,&rdquo; he says.</p><p>Stik Figa, a Topeka rapper, agrees. He uses leaks ( <a href="http://www.myspace.com/stikfiga">www.myspace.com/stikfiga</a>) to promote his sound, but at some point sees it backfiring.</p><p>&ldquo;At a certain stage in your career, pirating is going to be detrimental, maybe not to Jay-Z, but to lesser-known artists,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;Then again, maybe artists should make better records, and people will buy them.&rdquo;</p><p>Maybe that&rsquo;s Jay-Z&rsquo;s blueprint. Just keep making good records. Or maybe his name is so big, it doesn&rsquo;t matter. But where does that leave Stik and Greg and all the indie artists trying to figure out when to start charging for music that, to their listeners, has so far been free? </p><p>Greg isn&rsquo;t sure what the answer is.</p><p>&ldquo;At some point, it can&rsquo;t always be free,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s tricky. I don&rsquo;t think artists of the future will sell millions of records the way it used to be. I often wonder where I draw the line.&rdquo;</p><p>And I wonder if the file-sharing world is feeding into a future of starving artists who will never get fed.