Drake nearly found himself in legal trouble after releasing a Kendrick Lamar diss track titled “Taylor Made Freestyle” featuring an AI-generated version of Tupac Shakur’s voice earlier this month.
On Thursday, the song, which was originally released on April 19, was deleted from Drake’s Instagram page and his X account. An attorney for Tupac’s estate, Howard King, sent a cease and desist letter on Wednesday. on Friday, threatening legal action if the rapper, whose real name is Aubrey Drake Graham, did not remove the track from all public platforms, King said in a statement to Billboard.
“The Estate is deeply dismayed and disappointed by the unauthorized use of Tupac’s voice and personality,” King’s statement read, in part.
King called the use of Tupac’s AI vocals a “flagrant violation of Tupac’s publicity and estate’s legal rights” as well as “a blatant abuse of the legacy of one of the greatest hip-hop artists of all time.” He added that it is not something the estate would have ever approved.
In the song, AI-Tupac’s vocals rap: “Kendrick, we need you, the savior of the West Coast / Etching your name in some hip-hop history / If you handle it cruelly / You look a little nervous with all the advertising. ”
The song, which also features AI-generated vocals from Snoop Dogg, has reportedly been streamed more than a million times across different platforms. Snoop appeared to joke about his AI feature in a video posted to Instagram. “They did what? When? As? He is sure?”
“Taylor Made Freestyle” was a second diss track aimed at Kendrick after he apparently dissed Drake and J.Cole on the song “Like That” with Future, which reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart late last month. Before that, Drake had released “Push Ups,” also mocking Kendrick, and last Friday, Drake posted “Taylor Made Freestyle” on Instagram with the caption, “While we wait for you I guess.” The post has now been deleted.
Drake, 37, has not released any statement regarding the song’s removal.
This story originally appeared on Time.com read the full story
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