The Tupac Shakur estate has warned Drake for using an AI-generated voice of the late rap icon in his diss track to Kendrick Lamar.
According to Billboard, the estate is threatening to sue and stated the voice was “a flagrant violation” and “blatant use” of Pac’s legacy.
The message was delivered via a cease-and-desist letter filed by Howard King, requesting Drake pull the song within 24 hours or face all of the estate’s “legal remedies.”
“The Estate is deeply dismayed and disappointed by your unauthorized use of Tupac’s voice and personality,” King wrote in the letter. “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.”
Additionally, the letter reads, “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.”
Last Friday (April 19) on Instagram, Drake dropped off the “Taylor Made Freestyle.”
Upon pressing play, you will hear something you wouldn’t expect: Tupac’s voice. The single opens with an AI Tupac verse requesting KDot stand up for the West Coast. It is followed by an AI Snoop Dogg asking for the same.
AI Tupac raps:
Fuck this Canadian lightskin, Dot
We need an undebated West Coast victory, man
Call him a bitch for me
Talk about him liking young girls, that’s a gift from me
Heard it on the Budden Podcast, it’s gotta be true
They told me the spirit of Makaveli is alive
In the nigga under five-foot five, so it’s gotta be you
AI Snoop added:
‘Cause right now it’s looking like you writing out the game plan on how to lose
How to bark up the wrong tree and then get your head popped in a crowded room
World is watching this chess game, but are you out of moves?
After that, Drake pops in for his own slick talk:
The first one really only took me an hour or two
The next one is really ’bout to bring out the coward in you
But now we gotta wait a fucking week ’cause Taylor Swift is your new Top
And if you ’bout to drop, she gotta approve
Since “Like That,” your tone changed a little, you not as enthused
How are you not in the booth? It feel like you kinda removed
You tryna let this shit die down, nah, nah, nah
Not this time, nigga, you followin’ through
He ends the song with a message, “I know you’re in that NY apartment, you struggling right now I know it.”
You can hear it below.
Snoop Dogg offered his response to his voice being used in Drake’s diss song to Kendrick Lamar.
Hitting Instagram, Snoop said: “They did what? When? How? Are you sure? Y’all have a good night.”
Additionally, Snoop revealed his phone exploded once the song hit the net.
You can see Snoop’s response below.
Snoop dogg reacts to AI Snoop being used on Drake second diss at Kendrick pic.twitter.com/ZFmMuVCoj2
— DJ Akademiks (@Akademiks) April 20, 2024
Former Death Row head Suge Knight doesn’t like Drake’s “Taylor Made Freestyle” diss to Kendrick Lamar. Not because it attacked Lamar but because it put 2Pac and Snoop’s voices together on the song.
Speaking on his Collect Call with Suge Knight podcast from Breakbeat Media, Suge said, “Putting him on a song and dissing Kendrick for everybody entertainment–that ain’t how it go.”
He added, “Then putting him on a song with Snoop, who was a part of his downfall and exit, ain’t ever a good look. Pac was a king on that chessboard. He never was a pawn, so he can’t make him be a pawn now.”
The post Tupac’s Estate Issues Cease-and-Desist Letter to Drake Over AI-Voice in “Taylor Made Freestyle” first appeared on The Source.
The post Tupac’s Estate Issues Cease-and-Desist Letter to Drake Over AI-Voice in “Taylor Made Freestyle” appeared first on The Source.