The ongoing beef between Kendrick Lamar and Drake took an unexpected turn last weekend, the latter rapper released a track titled "Taylor Made Freestyle," in which AI-generated vocals in the style of the late Tupac Shakur and Snoop Dogg both took shots at Lamar.
While Snoop's only response thus far was to post a befuddled video to social media, Shakur's estate was considerably less pleased, issuing a cease-and-desist letter to Drake on April 24. It seems Drake got the memo, as the song has now disappeared from the rapper's official platforms.
Drake's AI-assisted track was the latest round in his dispute with Kendrick Lamar.
The squabble, which began in earnest in late March when Lamar took some barely-veiled shots at both Drake and J. Cole on the song "Like That" from Future and Metro Boomin's album We Don't Trust You, has since grown to encompass a wide cross-section of hip-hop names, including Rick Ross and Kanye West. Cole issued the first response, "7 Minute Drill," then tapped out of the feud and removed the song from his latest release, later calling it "the lamest s--t I ever did in my f--king life." Drake issued a belated response with the leaked track "Push Ups," then took the dispute into uncanny valley territory with "Taylor Made Freestyle," pointedly using the synthetic vocals of Tupac, one of Lamar's heroes.
While Lamar has yet to weigh in on this latest round, powerful attorney Howard King was quick to respond on behalf of Shakur's estate, threatening legal action if Drake did not remove the song from circulation.
Drake first responded to Lamar with the leaked track 'Push Ups.'
"The Estate is deeply dismayed and disappointed by your unauthorized use of Tupac’s voice and personality," King wrote. "Not only is the record a flagrant violation of Tupac’s publicity and the estate’s legal rights, it is also a blatant abuse of the legacy of one of the greatest hip-hop artists of all time. The Estate would never have given its approval for this use."
"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," he added, arguing that the song caused “substantial economic and reputational harm” by creating the “false impression that the estate and Tupac promote or endorse the lyrics for the sound-alike.”
Tupac Shakur's estate threatened legal action against Drake.
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In addition being unprecedented in the long history of hip-hop beefs, Drake's employment of AI vocals was particularly unexpected, considering he was one of the first major artists to see a song from a digital imposter make waves. Last year, an unknown TikTok user going by the name ghostwriter977 released a song called "Heart on My Sleeve" that featured AI-generated vocals from Drake and the Weeknd. Drake objected, and the song was quickly pulled from the internet, but not before a frankly bizarre interview with Recording Academy chief Harvey Mason Jr. in which he discussed the song's potential eligibility for last February's Grammy Awards.
Indeed, many speculated that Drake's "Push Ups" had been the product of an AI hoax when it first surfaces, only for Drake to later confirm its authenticity.
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