A day after Tupac Shakur‘s property threatened to sue over using AI-generated vocals from the late rapper, Drake has pulled his “Taylor Made Freestyle” down from social media.
Final Friday, Drake posted the Kendrick Lamar diss observe — which additionally contains AI Snoop Dogg vocals — to his social accounts. The tune made headlines for its controversial use of AI vocals from each the West Coast legends in addition to for lyrics aimed toward Lamar in an ongoing feud between the rappers, plus some pictures taken at Taylor Swift as nicely.
On Wednesday, in a cease-and-desist letter obtained solely by Billboard, Howard King — a lawyer for the Tupac Shakur property — advised Drake (Aubrey Drake Graham) that he needed to verify he would pull down his “Taylor Made Freestyle” in lower than 24 hours.
“The Property is deeply dismayed and upset by your unauthorized use of Tupac’s voice and character,” King wrote within the letter. “Not solely is the document a flagrant violation of Tupac’s publicity and the property’s authorized rights, it’s also a blatant abuse of the legacy of one of many best hip-hop artists of all time. The Property would by no means have given its approval for this use.” (Learn extra of the letter right here.)
King went on to level out that using Tupac’s voice in a diss observe in opposition to Lamar was significantly egregious. “The unauthorized, equally dismaying use of Tupac’s voice in opposition to Kendrick Lamar, good friend to the Property who has given nothing however respect to Tupac and his legacy publicly and privately, compounds the insult,” King wrote.
Billboard reached out to reps for each Drake and the Tupac property on Thursday (April 24) following the removing of the tune, and each declined to remark.
“Taylor Made Freestyle,” the follow-up to Drake’s “Push Ups” diss observe from earlier this month, is a part of a feud that was seemingly ignited by Lamar’s verse on Future and Metro Boomin’s “Like That,” which takes purpose at each Drake and J. Cole. “Like That” has spent three weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Scorching 100.
