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- An AI-generated cover of Drake rapping Ice Spice’s song “Munch” went viral this week.
- Drake spoke out against the cover in an Instagram stories post on Friday.
- Universal Music Group asked streaming services to block AI companies from accessing its music.
Drake spoke out after an AI-generated cover song featured his voice rapping Ice Spice’s breakthrough song, “Munch.”
On Friday, the “Rich Flex” rapper shared his thoughts in a now-deleted Instagram story addressing the AI cover song, which has gone viral across social media. In the cover, Drake’s AI-generated voice can be heard saying: “Bitches ain’t bad, let’s keep it a bean / Know they be mad that I be on the scene / Ass too fat, can’t fit in no jeans / You was my stitch, but it’s not what it seams.”
“This is the final straw AI,” Drake wrote.
—Pop Tingz (@ThePopTingz) April 14, 2023
Representatives for Drake did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment.
It’s not the first time Drake’s voice has been mimicked in AI cover songs in recent weeks, including a version of Cardi B’s “WAP” and Bryson Tiller’s “Dont.” The trend has become especially popular on TikTok, where an AI-generated cover of Drake singing “OMG” by K-Pop group NewJeans has 454,600 likes and 2.4 million views. Other celebrities like Rihanna have also been impersonated with AI-generated covers, like a cover song using her voice to sing Beyoncé’s “Cuff It.”
As AI-generated cover songs flood the internet, Universal Music Group took a stance on Thursday by asking streaming sites like Spotify and Apple Music to block AI companies from using its music with the technology.
“We have a moral and commercial responsibility to our artists to work to prevent the unauthorized use of their music and to stop platforms from ingesting content that violates the rights of artists and other creators,” a UMG spokesperson told Financial Times. “We expect our platform partners will want to prevent their services from being used in ways that harm artists.”
—Rihanna Facts (@Nevernyny) April 13, 2023
Veteran music and copyright lawyer Alexander Ross told Insider’s Barnaby Lane that the AI-generated cover songs could be illegal.
“If they have pinched the instrumental, or part of, from the original Beyoncé recording, that’s copyright infringement in a number of ways,” Ross said. “You’ve stolen part of the recording and you’ve distributed it, communicated it with the public. There are all sorts of grounds for infringement proceedings there.”
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