Tupac Shakur's estate has sent a cease and desist letter threatening to sue Drake over his recent Kendrick Lamar track featuring the late rapper's AI-generated vocals, reports Billboard.
Howard King, the attorney representing Tupac's estate, has given Drake 24 hours to confirm that he will remove “Taylor Made Freestyle” from social media or that all legal recourse will be taken against him.
“The State is deeply shocked and disappointed by the unauthorized use of Tupac's voice and personality,” the letter says. “Not only is the record a flagrant violation of Tupac's publicity and estate's legal rights, it is also a flagrant abuse of the legacy of one of the greatest hip-hop artists of all time. The State would never have given its approval for this use.”
Additionally, the letter took issue with Drake using Tupac's voice to criticize Kendrick: “The equally disheartening unauthorized use of Tupac's voice against Kendrick Lamar, a good friend of the Estate who has shown nothing but respect for Tupac and his legacy in public and private. , aggravates the insult.”
Drake released “Taylor Made” last Friday as the latest salvo in his feud with Kendrick, who kicked it off in March with a verse from Future and Metro Boomin's song “Like That.” On the track, Drake uses AI voices designed to sound like Tupac and Snoop Dogg to provoke his rival.
“Kendrick, we need you, the savior of the west coast/Etching your name in hip-hop history,” AI Tupac raps. “If you handle this viciously/You seem a little nervous about all the publicity/Fuck this light-skinned Canadian.”
For his part, Snoop Dogg commented on the song in a video on social media, saying: “They did what? When? As? Are you sure?”
Ironically, Drake was involved in an AI controversy last year, when an artist called Ghostwriter released a song called “Heart on My Sleeve” with AI-generated vocals created to imitate Drake and The Weeknd.
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