“You cannot bring people back from the dead and believe that they would stand for that,” said Crow of Drake’s recent and since-deleted song
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Artificial intelligence has no place in music, according to Sheryl Crow.
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member opened up to the BBC in a new interview about her fears regarding the music industry’s use of the technology — and took aim at Drake utilizing AI-generated vocals from the late Tupac Shakur in his recent song, “Taylor Made Freestyle.”
“You cannot bring people back from the dead and believe that they would stand for that,” Crow, 62, told the outlet of Drake’s song, a Kendrick Lamar diss track (also featuring an AI verse from Snoop Dogg) uploaded to social media on April 19.
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Tupac’s estate quickly took issue with the use of his voice and issued a cease-and-desist letter demanding the song be taken down. Drake, 37, then removed the song on April 26 — but Crow doesn’t think such actions solve the problem at-large.
“I’m sure Drake thought, ‘Yeah, I shouldn’t do it, but I’ll say sorry later’. But it’s already done, and people will find it even if he takes it down,” said the “If It Makes You Happy” singer. “It’s hateful. It is antithetical to the life force that exists in all of us.”
Crow also recalled beginning to feel especially wary about AI after a young songwriter friend used the technology to insert faux vocals from John Mayer onto a demo song in order to make the track more enticing after struggling to get people to listen to it.
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She expressed thinking of AI as a “slippery slope” as well as “a betrayal” that “goes against everything humanity is based on,” adding that she felt so “terrified” upon hearing the Mayer vocal dupe that she was “literally hyperventilating.”
“I know John and I know the nuances of his voice,” said Crow. “And there would be no way you’d have been able to tell that he was not singing that song.”
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Drake’s “Taylor Made Freestyle” featured an AI verse portraying Tupac as an ally to Lamar, whom the Canadian rapper was feuding with. The late rapper’s estate took issue with the song, as a letter sent by lawyer Howard King that’s been obtained by PEOPLE claimed that Drake’s use of his voice was a “flagrant violation of Tupac’s publicity and the estate’s legal rights.”
At the time, King said “Taylor Made Freestyle” was a “blatant abuse of the legacy of one of the greatest hip-hop artists of all time,” insisting the estate “would have never given its approval” regarding the use of Tupac’s vocals.
“You personally are well acquainted both with publicity rights and the laws that protect them, and with the harm that unauthorized AI impersonations can cause to artists, including yourself,” wrote King to Drake.