American singer-songwriter and actress, Sheryl Crow, has called out Drake over the use of an A-generated voice of Tupac Shakur for a Kendrick Lamar diss track. The 62-year-old musician took aim at the 37-year-old Canadian rapper for using the voice of the deceased 1990s West Coast rapper for his Taylor Made Freestyle. She told BBC: ‘You cannot bring people back from the dead and believe that they would stand for that.’
Sheryl believes Drake used the ‘ask for forgiveness approach’ but doesn’t actually see how unethical it is to humankind. Tupac died on September 13, 1996.
She explained: ‘I’m sure Drake thought, “Yeah, I shouldn’t do it, but I’ll say sorry later”. But it’s already done, and people will find it even if he takes it down.
‘It’s hateful. It is antithetical to the life force that exists in all of us.’
This is not the first time the track sparked controversy over the same reason as Tupac’s estate had threatened to sue over the use of the late rapper’s voice in his Kendrick Lamar diss track, Taylor Made Freestyle. Drake had used artificial intelligence to clone both Tupac and Snoop Dogg’s voices in his second diss track against Lamar – and now the late rapper’s estate has sent Drake a cease and desist letter seeking the removal of the song, according to Rolling Stone. Sent by attorney Howard King, the letter gave Drake 24 hours to take the track down – or else they would pursue legal action against him.
The artificial intelligence usage was branded a ‘flagrant violation of Tupac’s publicity and the estate’s legal rights’ and ‘blatant abuse of the legacy of one of the greatest hip-hop artists of all time.’ The letter claimed the estate ‘would have never’ approved of the AI recreation of Tupac. The song was released by Drake on Friday but was dropped via a video on social media, and not on streaming services. Had it been released on streaming services, it could have garnered royalties.
Despite this, the legal letter noted the track still garnered plenty of publicity and listens. Further causing infuriation was the fact the song was a diss track against ‘good friend to the Estate’ Kendrick Lamar.
‘The unauthorized, equally dismaying use of Tupac’s voice against Kendrick Lamar, a good friend to the Estate who has given nothing but respect to Tupac and his legacy publicly and privately, compounds the insult,’ the letter stated. ‘It is hard to believe that [Tupac’s record label]’s intellectual property was not scraped to create the fake Tupac AI on the Record,’ the letter continues.
King also insists Drake provide an explanation for ‘how the sound-alike was created and the persons or company that created it, including all recordings and other data “scraped” or used.’ The letter also noted the song may have violated publicity rights laws, stipulations that ‘allow for the protection of a person’s likeness,’ writes Rolling Stone. The outlet also notes that the laws generally protect against the improper use of someone’s likeness and not so much any AI issues. In making his point that the song violated California’s publicity rights law, King stated the track gives the ‘false impression that the estate and Tupac promote or endorse the lyrics for the sound-alike.’
