Signifying rappers (for AIs)
Lessons from a dissing
We all know that ghostwriters are people who write texts, songs, books, articles, and essays for a living. By contract, they always remain in the shadows: their works are attributed to much more famous and higher-paid individuals. Ghostwriter977 is likely the pseudonym of a ghostwriter in the music industry who has never revealed their identity, paid "little to nothing just for the major labels to profit," as they themselves stated.
On April 4, 2023, when for most people generative artificial intelligences were still a mysterious object for insiders – there had already been the incident of the Balanciaga pope, but little else –, ghostwriter977 produced and then published a song titled "Heart on my Sleeve" on various online platforms. The vocal part of the song is sung by Drake and The Weeknd, two Canadian rappers. However, their voices are simulated by an AI.
The song, which undoubtedly requires professional knowledge in the field of music production, accumulated 600,000 listens on Spotify, 275,000 on YouTube, and 15 million on TikTok. It was then removed from all platforms at the request of Universal Music Group (UMG), Drake's record label. In the absence of regulations on generative artificial intelligences, the only reason UMG was initially able to ask for and obtain the removal of the track is that "Heart on my Sleeve" contains an unauthorized sample of another song.
Read also The rap feud between Kendrick Lamar and Drake But we are in the era of the internet and the viral reproducibility of anything: since then, the song continues to be uploaded online, deleted, and re-uploaded, multiplying. It is impossible to stop this process; it is also impossible to know how many people have listened to the song. You can do it too (here, for example, and if the link does not work, just search for it on YouTube).
A year later, we are in the midst of a rap battle fought with disses – tracks through which hip-hop artists attack each other. The subject of contention? The New York Times sums it up as: "Who is the current holder of the hip-hop crown: Drake or Kendrick Lamar?"
Rap battles consist of bars (verses) against other rappers, in their own songs or those of other artists. In one such song, "Like That," in March 2023, Lamar brings up Drake. The Canadian rapper responds with "Push Ups." Some online wonder if it's a real Drake song or if it was made with an AI, but speculations end when a high-quality version of the track appears on Drake's official account with the approval of Universal.
Lamar responds in turn with "One Shot." Only then it turns out that it wasn't him, but a young rapper from Los Angeles who then detailed how he did it. On April 19, 2024: Drake releases a track titled "Taylor Made Freestyle," featuring Snoop Dogg and one of the most famous rappers in history, Tupac Shakur. Only Tupac Shakur died in 1996, shot dead with four bullets – his story of endured and inflicted violence, activism, poetry, crimes, trials, and imprisonment is still relevant: the trial of the alleged murderer has not yet begun –, and his voice in Drake's track is not the result of a remix or a sample. It is simulated by a generative artificial intelligence. Probably the same applies to Snoop Dogg's voice (who would have given his approval for the release).
If there is a place in the music culture where the use of artificial intelligences can find fertile ground, that place is precisely the world of hip-hop: not only do the songs that make up these remote clashes not appear on the official accounts of record labels but are offered more freely, a bit like the production of ghostwriter977. Moreover, hip-hop is also a natural incubator for everything that is remix, remake, reworking. Just what can be done with AIs.
However, not everyone is happy about it. The Tupac estate, which manages the rights of Tupac's works and his legacy, has asked Drake to remove the track from his accounts: the rapper has complied.
Despite this, "Taylor Made Freestyle" can still be heard everywhere.
There is a detail worth adding: the Shakur estate, after the death of the rapper's mother, is in the hands of Tom Walley, former CEO of a major label, Warner Music Records. In 2022, Shakur's sister sued Walley, accusing him of stealing millions of dollars for his own benefit.
Finally, on Tuesday, April 30, 2024, Lamar publishes a six-minute track on his YouTube profile. It's titled "Euphoria." After stating that Drake's imitation is making Tupac turn in his grave, the rapper wonders: "Am I fighting a ghost or an AI?"
We might add a bar where we ask if those fighting generative AIs are battling for the ghostwriters or for the cash.
This text is from the "Artificiale" newsletter I write, in Italian, for Internazionale
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