Sheryl Crow referred to Drake as “hateful” after using an AI-generated version of Tupac Shakur’s voice in his Kendrick Lamar diss track “Taylor Made Freestyle.”
During a recent interview with BBC, Crow called out the rapper for his decision to include Tupac in the song. “You cannot bring people back from the dead and believe that they would stand for that,” she explained.
“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. It’s hateful. It is antithetical to the life force that exists in all of us.”
Along with calling out Drake for his use of AI, Sheryl Crow also encouraged politicians to enact “tighter controls” on the technology’s use.
“AI can do lots of things, but it can’t go out and play live,” she pointed out. “So as long as we have live music, as long as we have hands holding a paintbrush, all is not lost.”
She further characterizes AI as a “slipper slope” and “a betrayal” that “goes against everything humanity is based on.”
The diss track was released amid the highly publicized feud with Lamar. Along with Tupac, Drake also included an AI-generated voice of Snoop Dogg. Throughout the song, Drake uses the voice as he talks down on the fellow rapper, who is then called out by both the AI.
“Nephew, what the f–k you really ’bout to do? / We passed you the torch at the House of Blues / And now you gotta do some dirty work, you know how to move, right? Right?” Drake said using Snoop’s voice.
Sheryl Crow’s Drake Criticism Comes After He Receives Cease and Desist From Tupac’s Estate
Just before Sheryl Crow called Drake out for his AI usage for the song, Howard E. King, the attorney who represents the Shakur estate, sent a cease and desist letter to the rapper, demanding he remove the song from streaming services.
In his letter, King referred to the song as a “flagrant violation of Tupac’s publicity and the Estate’s legal right” and a “blatant abuse of the legacy of one of the greatest hip-hop artists of all time.”
“The Estate would never have given its approval for this use,” King continued. “The unauthorized, equally dismaying use of Tupac’s voice against Kendrick Lamar, a good friend to the Estate who has given nothing but respect to Tupac and his legacy publicly and privately, compounds the insult.”
Drake has since removed the song. He also addressed the situation in another diss track to Lamar. He blamed the fellow rapper for his legal troubles.
“A cease-and-desist is for hoes, can’t listen to lies that come out of your mouth,” Drake sings. The lyrics are from his “Family Matters” diss track. “You called the Tupac estate and begged ’em to sue me and get that s–t down.”