Amidst his feud with what seems like the entirety of the hip hop universe, Drake can’t seem to catch a break.
After releasing his second diss track towards Kendrick Lamar last Friday, “Taylor Made Freestyle”, the “6 God” is now facing a potential lawsuit from the Tupac Shakur estate, which features an AI generated verses from both Tupac and Snoop Dogg.
Earlier this morning via Billboard, Tupac’s estate threatened Drake with a cease and desist if he doesn’t take down the track within 24 hours, calling the AI generated verse a “blatant abuse” of the late rappers legacy, and a “flagrant violation” of the law.
On the track, Drake speaks to Lamar from the perspective of two fellow West Coast legends, both of whom have had a huge influence on Lamar’s career to date. The song itself is an attempt to egg Lamar to respond to Drake’s “Push Ups” track, which released earlier last week, with Drake aiming to sway public opinion in his favour.
Given Taylor Swift’s re-releasing of her 1989 album last October which features a re-recorded Lamar verse on their 2015 hit “Bad Blood”, Drake continues to toy with the idea of Lamar being controlled by industry higher-ups, one of the main angles he took on “Push Ups”. On “Taylor Made Freestyle”, Tupac’s verse (like Snoop’s), was written and rapped by Drake, before using an AI generated version of Tupac’s voice to mimic the late legend.
Drizzy’s always historically been early on a wave, but his decision to incorporate AI has been met with extremely mixed discourse. While Drake is yet to publicly acknowledge the lawsuit yet, it adds to the continuous debate about AI technology within music and how it could both benefit and harm certain genres.
Whether Drake deletes the song within 24 hours or whether the lawsuit goes ahead is yet to be determined, but Drake’s incorporation of AI will likely be a talking point for the foreseeable future.
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