You cannot bring people back from the dead,” says Sheryl Crow as she blasts Drake for using an AI-generated Tupac in Kendrick Lamar diss
American singer-songwriter and actress Sheryl Crow has criticized Drake for using an AI-generated voice of Tupac Shakur in a diss track aimed at Kendrick Lamar. The 62-year-old musician called out the 37-year-old Canadian rapper for using the voice of the deceased 1990s West Coast rapper in his “Taylor Made Freestyle.”
She told the BBC, “You cannot bring people back from the dead and believe that they would stand for that.”
Sheryl believes Drake employed the “ask for forgiveness approach” without recognizing the ethical implications. 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. Tupac’s estate had previously threatened to sue over the use of the late rapper’s voice in the “Taylor Made Freestyle.”
Drake used artificial intelligence to clone both Tupac and Snoop Dogg’s voices in his second diss track against Lamar. According to Rolling Stone, Tupac’s estate has sent Drake a cease and desist letter, demanding the removal of the song.
Sent by attorney Howard King, the letter gave Drake 24 hours to take the track down or face legal action. The letter described the AI usage as a “flagrant violation of Tupac’s publicity and the estate’s legal rights” and a “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 via a video on social media, not on streaming services, which would have garnered royalties.
Despite this, the legal letter noted the track still received significant publicity and listens. Further infuriation arose from the fact that the song was a diss track against Kendrick Lamar, described as a “good friend to the Estate.”
“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 continued.
King also insisted 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 might have violated publicity rights laws, which protect a person’s likeness. Rolling Stone mentioned that these laws generally guard against the improper use of someone’s likeness rather than AI issu
King argued that the song violated California’s publicity rights law, giving the “false impression that the estate and Tupac promote or endorse the lyrics for the sound-alike.”