Timbaland apologises to Jay-Z over LP leak

Music producer Timbaland has apologised to Jay-Z for accidentally leaking several songs from his new album over two weeks before its release.

Several Timbaland beats earmarked for the rapper's The Blueprint 3 surfaced online in August.

Jay-Z's collaborator Memphis Bleek publicly blasted the producer for the songs leaking, declaring that one of his employees must have been responsible for the LP making its way online.

According to Contactmusic, the 'Run This Town' star said: "Bleek's my guy so he's super-protective, so he's hurt. I think they (culprits) hacked [Timbaland's] account.

"[After the leak] I called [Timbaland] and said, 'Hey man, what's going on over there, what's happening?' The first thing he said was, 'I don't have the songs'. Then he thought about it for a day and the next day he called and apologised for it. That's all I wanted to hear. They were all his songs, so obviously someone in his camp leaked the songs."

However, the 39-year-old insisted that he is not angry about fans hearing the songs early, saying: "[It just affects] the presentation. There's a reason you have singles, you want fans to hear certain songs first."

Jay-Z recently brought forward the release of The Blueprint 3 after discovering the album had leaked.