Songs of the Week highlights great new tunes while also breaking down notable tracks we don't love. Find our new favorites and more in our Spotify best songs playlist and to see other great songs from emerging artists, check out our Spotify new sounds play list. This week, we look back at the week in music with new tracks from Jamie xx, RAYE and Drake.
New and notable: Uncanny Valley of music sounds like “Wah Gwan Delilah”
In 1970, Japanese roboticist Masahiro Mori coined the term “uncanny valley” to describe the repulsion many people feel when they see something realistic but not quite human. You can experience it in robotic faces that try to imitate human skin, the eeriness of wax museums, the discomfort of computer-generated images with dead eyes, and in some AI videos that drag your skin.
It's usually a visual experience, but I felt an almost identical sensation listening to “Wah Gwan Delilah,” a Toronto-themed cover of “Hey There Delilah,” released by Snowd4y and billed as featuring Drake. Drake himself shared a screenshot of the song on her Instagram story, although she didn't say if it was real.
One verse sounds like Drake, or like an AI impersonating Drake, depending on who you ask. Billboard first reported which “seems” to be genuine, but two days later he had backed off a bit, observing that “to date, the two rappers have neither confirmed nor denied the AI rumor.” That same article reached two different AI tracking companies. Both called their tests inconclusive, noting that they found traces of AI in the track mix, but were unable to determine much else.
If I had to guess, I would say that his voice is generated by a machine. Billboard described Snowd4y as a “parody rapper,” the song isn't connected to the rest of Drake's discography on major streaming platforms, and if you listen to the lyrics, it sure sounds like a comedian trying to have fun, not like A super star. planning a blockbuster cover (“I'm so happy!”). But only a handful of people know for sure.
Drake was one of the first artists to embrace this new frontier, using Tupac's AI-generated voice to diss Kendrick Lamar. Since Tupac is dead, we can be sure he didn't write the verse himself. But as “Wah Gwan Delilah” demonstrates, we won't always be so sure. And if that makes you uncomfortable, well, that's part of being human.
-Wren graves
Function editor
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