Ne-Yo is “disturbed” by sales of his new album ‘Libra Scale’.

The ‘Beautiful Monster’ singer feels his latest album leaking online has affected potential sales since its release on October 27, and has defended telling all file sharers to “die slow”.

He told CW50detroit.com’s Gossip Girls section: “I was a little disturbed by my first week numbers, but a lot of things went into that first week number.

“The album getting leaked a month in advance definitely had something to do with it.

“That was another situation where I jumped on my soapbox and let the world know how I felt about that.

“You know it’s the world we live in today, it’s the game. I’m not gonna let the ignorance of some stop me from doing what I feel like I was put on this earth to do.”

Ne-Yo took to twitter to vent his anger at the album’s leaks and wrote a series of open messages to those who had illegally obtained his work.

In one particularly angry post he wrote: “ALL HACKERS DIE SLOW!! It’s stealing plain and simple! There’s places where they cut people’s hands off for less! Y’all SUCK!!!!! (sic)”

Ne-Yo later apologised for the upset nature of his messages, and has also clarified his position on illegal downloading.

He said: “I just feel like people don’t have patience anymore. Where’s the class and integrity that came with music back in the day? You listen to it before it’s supposed to be listened to and then you don’t like it but you didn’t even give it a chance to get done.

“That’s like eating a meal before its finished cooking; of course you’re not gonna like it!”