Tupacâs lawyers are threatening to sue Drake for using an AI-generated Tupac soundalike on his recent âTaylor Madeâ diss track without permission.
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While Drakeâs fans have been having a ball with the Canadian rapperâs recently released track dissing fellow rapper Kendrick Lamar, the legal team representing Tupac Shakur is threatening to take legal action if the song isnât pulled off the internet.
Billboard reports that late rapper Tupacâs legal team is ready to take Drake to court over the release of âTaylor Made,â Drakeâs recently released song featuring the AI-generated voices of Shakur and Snoop Dogg. In a statement about Drakeâs creation of âTaylor Made,â litigator Howard King called the song a âblatant abuse of the legacy of one of the greatest hip-hop artists of all timeâ and said the Shakur estate never cleared the use of Tupacâs voice.
âThe Estate is deeply dismayed and disappointed by your unauthorized use of Tupacâs voice and personality,â King said. âThe Estate would never have given its approval for this use.â
For the past few weeks, a number of rap artists, including Lamar, Drake, and J. Cole, have been pointedly attacking one another (and entertaining everybody else) through their music after years of simmering tensions over â among other things â whoâs the biggest in the game. In response to âLike That,â Futureâs recently released song featuring Lamar in which he calls Drake out for making previous jabs, Drake dropped âPush Ups,â a track poking fun at Lamarâs height, shoe size, and the details of his old deal at Top Dawg Entertainment.Â
Rather than waiting for a response, Drake also debuted âTaylor Madeâ on April 19th, and the song immediately raised eyebrows â less so for its reference to Taylor Swift and more so for its prominent use of voices from West Coast rappers (one of whom is quite dead) who did not seem to be involved in any of the ongoing beef. Following the release of âTaylor Made,â Snoop uploaded a video to Instagram with an assortment of emoji seemingly indicating bemusement.
The entire situation might seem silly from a distance, but âTaylor Madeâ is one of the bigger examples of whatâs coming out of the AI-generated music boom thatâs flooded social media and raised questions about how record labels plan to respond. Interestingly, Drake has a history of publicly decrying AI-generated music while also seeming like one of the more likely sources of âHeart on My Sleeve,â the viral, AI-generated song attributed to anonymous TikTok user ghostwriter977.
Tupacâs estate wants âTaylor Madeâ pulled within 24 hours, and if Drake made the song without their permission, we might just see it disappear. But as much as this beef has been about garnering attention, Drake could be very willing to go to court to make his case.
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Charles Pulliam-Moore