Drake removes Kendrick Lamar diss track amid outrage from Tupac Shakur’s estate!
Drake removes Kendrick Lamar diss track amid outrage from Tupac Shakur’s estate!
Drake has removed his Kendrick Lamar “diss track” amid outrage from Tupac Shakur’s estate it used AI to recreate the murdered rapper’s voice.
The 37-year-old performer released ‘Taylor Made Freestyle’ last week that deployed artificial intelligence to clone Tupac and Snoop Dogg’s voices in his second diss track against Kendrick, 36, which appears to take aim at him for collaborating with 34-year-old Taylor Swift on her 2015 remix of her hit ‘Bad Blood’.
Tupac’s estate sent him a cease and desist letter for using the rapper’s voice and Drake has now stripped the song from on his social media accounts – and his team are also reportedly working with Tupac’s estate to get the song removed from all other platforms online, according to TMZ.
The letter, sent by attorney Howard King, said Tupac’s estate was “deeply dismayed and disappointed” by the unauthorised usage of his voice, saying it was a “blatant abuse of the legacy of one of the greatest hip-hop artists of all time”.
Drake has given no explanation for removing the song from his Instagram and X.
Attorneys for Tupac’s estate said the AI use was a “flagrant violation” and pointed out Kendrick was “a good friend to the Estate” and “has given nothing but respect to Tupac and his legacy publicly and privately”.
They set a 24-hour deadline to remove the song.
Mr King said in his letter Tupac’s estate would “never” have approved of the AI recreation of the rapper’s voice.
He added: “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 said the song may also have violated publicity rights laws and stated the track gives the “false impression that the estate and Tupac promote or endorse the lyrics for the sound-alike”.
It also highlighted how Drake had previously battled others to stop wrongfully using his likeness – including in the 2023 song ‘Heart On My Sleeve’ written by a TikToker that also used AI to recreate his voice.