Tupac’s Estate Threatens to Sue Drake for Deepfaking Dead Rapper’s Voice

The Worst After raising a stink last year when someone used AI to spoof his voice, noted teen drama star Aubrey “Drake” Graham is now in hot water for doing the same to the late, great Tupac. As Billboard reports, an attorney for Tupac Shakur’s estate sent a cease and desist letter to Drake, threatening a lawsuit if he doesn’t take down his new Kendrick Lamar diss track, “Taylor Made Freestyle.” The song, which deepfakes the voices of Shakur and Calvin “Snoop Dogg” Broadur Jr., is the latest forte in the Canadian rapper’s seemingly mostly one-sided beef with Lamar, which began with another, blessedly AI-less track titled “Push Ups.” In the latest song, Drake twice mentions Taylor Swift, who is also a victim of nonconsensual deepfakes, and its title may be a reference to her as well. Despite signing off on the West Coast legend being digitally raised from the dead more than a decade ago for a holographic Coachella performance — alongside the still-living Snoop, no less — Shakur’s estate is none too pleased with Graham’s antics. “The Estate is deeply dismayed and disappointed by your unauthorized use of Tupac’s voice and personality,” the Shakur family’s lawyer, Howard King, wrote in a letter to Graham that Billboard obtained. “Not only is the record a flagrant violation of Tupac’s publicity and the estate’s legal rights, it is also a blatant abuse of the legacy of one of the greatest hip-hop artists of all time.” “The Estate,” the letter continued, “would never…Tupac’s Estate Threatens to Sue Drake for Deepfaking Dead Rapper’s Voice

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