Rap is getting weird.
Crap Beef
The boys are fighting again — or are they?
The hip hop world has once again been lit ablaze after rumors started swirling of a possible rap battle between Dwayne “Lil Wayne” Carter Jr. and Kendrick Lamar.
Lil Wayne has remained loyal to Aubrey “Drake” Graham, a longtime arch nemesis of Lamar’s. The NFL, which has strong ties with rapper Shawn “Jay Z” Carter, also picked Lamar over New Orleans native Lil Wayne for the upcoming Super Bowl halftime show in the city, spurring the rumor mill to start churning.
And now, as Hot New Hip Hop reports, the maybe-feud has garnered a distinctly 2024 twist: several AI-generated diss tracks, featuring an imitation of Lil Wayne’s iconic vocal style, are circulating online and causing even more confusion.
One track made its rounds on social media, but was quickly called out as fake.
“Lol the AI got 2013 Wayne voice,” one user joked, pointing out that the AI doesn’t sound much like the aging star actually does now.
It isn’t the first time we’ve seen AI-generated diss tracks seed chaos in Lamar’s orbit. In April, for instance, a track featuring the “Not Like Us” singer fooled plenty of people into believing it was real.
The trend has turned into a massive game of cat and mouse, with steadily improving AI tech further smudging the already-blurred lines between fan-authored fiction and reality.
Industry Slop
AI has rapidly grown to become a thorn in the sides of major record artists and labels. Last year, Universal Music Group (UMG) forced Spotify, Apple Music, and other music streamers to take down a track that used AI-generated vocals that imitated Graham’s voice.
The incident sparked a massive debate online over artists’ rights, over not just their own voices but the likenesses of their performances as well.
Earlier this year, more than 200 artists, including plenty of A-listers, signed an open letter by the Artist Rights Alliance, calling out AI as being an “assault on human creativity” which should be “stopped.”
But that hasn’t stopped tech-savvy netizens from sowing discord online by AI-generating tracks using their favorite artists’ voices.
Whether the AI-generated tracks have had any effect on the relationship between Lamar and Carter Jr. remains to be seen. The two reportedly spoke earlier this week about the latter being snuffed for the Super Bowl halftime show.
Wayne, who previously lamented that the decision “broke me,” said during an interview on The Skip Bayless Show earlier this week “I’ve spoken to him and I wished him all the best and told him he better kill it.”
In other words, the supposed feud is likely nothing more than AI-generated fiction.
Perhaps Dominick “Hitta J3” Williams, a longtime associate of Lamar’s, said it best in a tweet earlier this week.
“People be so desperate to have some beef to entertain that don’t involve them,” he wrote.
More on diss tracks: Internet Fooled by AI-Generated Kendrick Lamar Diss Track
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