There’s a lot going on in the continuous beef in between rap artists Drake and Kendrick Lamar– to put it slightly– much of which we’re not going to get into here.
However there’s one emerging style from the blistered earth lyrical fight that’s SFW: the methods which it’s exposed the progressively main function of AI in contemporary music.
In the thick of Drake and Lamar’s unrelenting exchange of ruthless diss tracks this weekend, a crucial Kendrick ally– record manufacturer City Boomin– published an anti-Drake beat on Twitter, and motivated his fans to rap over it for a reward.
The track, “BBL Drizzy,” recommendations a bad label for the Toronto-born pop star initially coined by fellow rap artist Rick Ross.
Thus numerous viral tracks flowing nowadays, “BBL Drizzy” is an AI-generated beat that changes contemporary recommendations into classic noises (see: a phony Frank Sinatra Radiohead cover, or a 1940’s big band tune about a male losing control of physical functions at work). In this case, City Boomin repurposed an endless string of Drake insults as a 1970s soul ballad.
A variation of the track was very first created last month by King Willonius, a comic who makes use of AI to create cultural commentary.
That guy has actually contributed more to hip hop than Drake has actually ever done
— fan account (@Asensii20) May 5, 2024
AI discovered its method into the heart of Drake and Lamar’s disagreement long previously this weekend, however. In March, among Drake’s very first direct chance ats Lamar– a track entitled “Taylor Made Freestyle”– consisted of AI-generated vocals mimicing both Snoop Dogg and the late rap legend Tupac Shakur.
Within days, Shakur’s estate threatened to take legal action against Drake, berating the unapproved usage of the departed rap artist’s similarity– especially to mock Lamar, another popular West Coast hip-hop star who has actually long admired Shakur.
” The unapproved, similarly dismaying usage of Tupac’s voice versus Kendrick Lamar, a buddy to the Estate who has actually offered absolutely nothing however regard to Tupac and his tradition openly and independently, substances the insult,” a cease-and-desist letter gotten by Signboard read.
2 days later on, Drake eliminated the track from social networks. Within a week, Lamar launched ” Bliss,” a blistering anti-Drake diatribe that particularly called out the artist’s dependence on expert system to combat lyrical fights.
” Am I battlin’ ghosts or AI?” Lamar rapped, after declaring that Drake is incapable of composing tunes without 20-person groups and state-of-the-art help.
Paradoxically, Drake has actually likewise been on the getting end of AI-driven drama. In 2015, a AI-powered tune mimicing both his voice which of fellow artist The Weeknd drew in a lot favorable attention that it was practically thought about for a Grammy— before legal hazards from Universal Music Group put that possibility to bed.
In spite of its synthetically boosted origins, the track “Heart On My Sleeve” was so extensively well-known that some hip-hop fans argued it was much better than the genuine thing.
” Finest Drake tune in years and he didn’t even compose or sing in it,” one YouTube commenter composed.
Modified by Andrew Hayward