Paul's 2007 demo recording "BTSTU", hosted at his MySpace page, received widespread music blog coverage throughout 2010, including a feature in Guardian's New band of the week,[6] resulting in UK national radio play.
[11][12] By December 2010, the BBC had long-listed Paul for their Sound of 2011 poll, asserting his style as "a startlingly fresh vision of 21st century pop music".
"[15][16] On 20 May 2011, Canadian hip-hop artist Drake "officially leaked" a track titled "Dreams Money Can Buy" via his blog, October's Very Own.
[20] "Jasmine (demo)" received positive reviews, with Pitchfork featuring the song as a "Best New Track",[19] The New York Times praising its "Prince era sensuality"[21] and The Guardian describing the production as "amazing".
[21] Later in 2012, Paul appeared as a guest on the deluxe version of Big Boi's 2012 album Vicious Lies and Dangerous Rumors, having produced the track "Higher Res".
[26][27] Owen Myers reported the music as having come from a personal laptop stolen from Paul himself, citing a comment made by Twitter user "@FatAmpNadia" as his source.
[30] Many journalists and commenters suggested the leak to be a cynically devised marketing plan on Paul and XL Recordings' behalf; having achieved the desired result, the two parties made false statements to the public "explaining away" the events.
[31] Duncan Cooper of The Fader concludes that "In any case, the album's origins and officialness [sic] seem like something of a technicality", adding the opinion that "Jai Paul seems to be getting paid for it", despite the record company's claims otherwise.
[25] Many publications opted to review the leaked material as an "album" with Gigwise commenting "there are moments that sound distinctly unfinished.
[44] Paul provided miscellaneous production to Childish Gambino's track "Time" featuring Ariana Grande on the album 3.15.20, released in March 2020.
The site featured some unreleased demo and promotional material, as well as Easter egg content that linked to videos and websites.
In 2022, Paul made a brief appearance in the third season of the television series Atlanta, conversing with LaKeith Stanfield's character, Darius, at a party.
[47] On 10 January 2023, Paul was announced as part of the Coachella lineup, and his debut performance was on Mojave Stage, on Saturday 15 April 2023.
Where some quickly melt down the attention for liquid purpose, promising talent Jai Paul removed all his music from MySpace and went to get his shit together".
[53] XL Recordings founder and owner Richard Russell accepts Paul's idiosyncratic style, saying: "Jai is a wizard... the way he's going about things is, I think for many, baffling.
"[27] Meanwhile, The Quietus blogger Alex Macpherson disagreed, presuming the opposite; saying in 2013 that Paul's "career to date [consists] of little more than a couple of shonky demos and a carefully cultivated aura of mystique" in a scathing article titled "Jai Paul: A Scam to Feed the Internet Sausage Machine".