An attorney representing Tupac Shakur’s estate sent a cease-and-desist letter to Drake after he used an AI-generated image of the late rapper’s voice in a diss track.
Howard King says in the letter that “Taylor Made Freestyle” is a “flagrant violation of Tupac’s publicity and the estate’s legal rights,” and said in the letter that if Drake does not remove the track from the platforms where it is available, the estate considers suing.
Drake, whose real name is Aubrey Graham, dropped the song last week as part of an ongoing feud with rapper Kendrick Lamar, who last month suggested the Toronto rapper isn’t on his level.
“The equally disheartening unauthorized use of Tupac’s voice against Kendrick Lamar, a good friend of the State who has shown nothing but respect for Tupac and his legacy in public and private, compounds the insult,” King wrote.
Drake posted “Taylor Made Freestyle” to Instagram last Friday and had not yet deleted it as of Thursday as King requested. As of Thursday, the video containing the song had garnered more than two million likes.
In the song, Drake suggests that Lamar hasn’t yet responded to a previous song because he was afraid of competing with Taylor Swift, whose album “The Tortured Poets Department” was released last week.
“You’re supposed to be the boogeyman, do what you do / Unless it’s a time when you tell us it’s not really you,” the Shakur-like sound raps.
Drake’s track also includes a facsimile of Snoop Dogg’s voice, also generated by artificial intelligence, which attempts to encourage Lamar to challenge Drake, a task that Drake suggests Lamar is not up to.
In the letter, King claims that Drake knowingly violated Shakur’s publicity rights, as Drake has taken similar legal action in the past.
“Just a few years ago you used the same California laws you knowingly violated with your artificial intelligence to challenge a much less publicized and much more benign use of your image on a niche commercial website with a small audience,” King wrote.
Additionally, he pointed out the highly publicized case of a track containing an AI-generated Drake-like sound.
Universal Music Group encouraged a crackdown on unauthorized use of its artists’ voices after a song appeared online last year featuring AI voices inspired by Drake and The Weeknd.
Universal said at the time that the fake songs are “both a breach of our agreements and a violation of copyright law.”
There was, King wrote, “a lot of news coverage highlighting how bad counterfeiting was for you.”
A spokesperson for Drake did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In addition to requesting that the song be removed from Drake’s social media, King said the artist should take “all necessary steps to remove it from other websites and platforms.”
He also requested a detailed explanation of how the similar sound was created.
“It’s hard to believe that Amaru’s intellectual property wasn’t removed to create Tupac’s fake AI on the record,” King wrote.
The law, he said, dictates that a person who uses the name and voice of a deceased personality for commercial purposes “is responsible for the damage caused, the person’s profits and attorneys’ fees.”
“If compliant, the Estate will consider whether an informal negotiation makes sense to resolve this matter,” King wrote. “If you fail to comply, our client has authorized this firm to pursue all of its legal remedies.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 25, 2024.