Drake deleted his song with Tupac’s voice, the late rapper’s lawyer threatened him with a lawsuit

Tupac Shakur’s lawyer has threatened to sue Drake and ordered him to delete a song that uses an AI-generated copy of the late rapper’s voice.

On Friday, Drake released “Taylor Made Freestyle,” a dissident track aimed at Kendrick Lamar on his Instagram page that features verses created by artificial intelligence software imitating the voices of Shakur and Snoop Dogg.

The letter, sent on Wednesday, said the Canadian rapper had until noon on Thursday to confirm he would remove it, or the lawyer would “take all legal action” against him.

“The recording is not only a gross violation of Tupac’s publicity and legal rights of the estate, but also a blatant abuse of the legacy of one of the greatest hip-hop artists of all time,” Mr. King wrote.

In the song, Shakur’s AI-generated voice calls on Lamar to respond to Drake’s previous dissident track about him, released a few days earlier, saying lines like “Kendrick, we need you, the savior of the West Coast / You look a little nervous about all publicity / You asked for a smoke, now you seem too busy for a smoke”.

Shakur’s family’s attorney is also seeking damages including all profits from the recording, which has so far only been posted on Drake’s Instagram page, as well as additional damages for significant economic and reputational damages.

The letter claims that Drake’s bad faith use of Shakur’s image violates Shakur’s right of publicity, an intellectual property right that protects against misappropriation of someone’s name or likeness.

In a cease-and-desist letter, an attorney representing Shakur’s estate asked Drake to remove the song from all platforms where it is publicly available.

The artificial intelligence-generated voice of famous rapper Snoop Dogg is also used in the song.

Snoop Dogg posted a video to his Instagram story shortly after the dissident song was released, saying: “They what did? When? How… What’s up… Going back to bed.”

The use of artificial intelligence in the music industry has been the subject of heavy debate since last year, when Drake’s own voice was cloned along with The Weeknd’s by an artist known as Ghostwriter.

The song was taken down from all platforms shortly after it was released in April, reports Vesti.bg.