I just got an e-mail from Kanye West. Or someone pretending to be Kanye West. This isn’t the first time either. (Here’s a shoddy screen grab of the message.) The lone content of this e-mail was a link to a YouTube page for a song by somebody named Tokin’ Black Guy, a character with which Kanye has denied any involvement.

The first e-mail I got from “Kanye West,” on Jan. 27, appeared to be an error, an exchange accidentally (or not) forwarded to a mass list – others got it as well (it was cool to see Kanye West light up my inbox, though). In a follow-up, “Kanye West” wrote:

Unaware as to how you may have receive one of my emails, thank you for respecting my messages. As for the rough version of the song, it is out there now, so you may use it for personal use or have it as a stream on your website please. Thank you and wish everyone nothing but the best.

Is this a stroke of marketing genius? Is this really Kanye West? Should I, as Gmail suggests, “invite Kanye West to chat”? Does anybody know what the hell this is about?