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Drake may be willing to go to war with the likes of Kendrick Lamar, Rick Ross and whoever else may have a problem with him, but he doesn’t want any smoke with Tupac Shakur’s estate.
Less than a week after releasing his “Taylor Made Freestyle” which featured an AI version of the late-great Makaveli, Tupac Shakur’s estate threatened Drizzy with a lawsuit for using Pac’s “vocals” on his Kendrick Lamar diss record. They gave him 24 hours to take the song down or face the legal consequences. Sho’nuff, the song has now been removed from Drizzy’s Instagram page with no explanation (not that one was needed).
Last weekend, Drake shocked the Hip-Hop world when he released the aforementioned song, which not only featured an AI generated verse from Tupac, but also Snoop Dogg who’s alive and well. With many fans bemoaning the artificially created verse from one of the biggest Hip-Hop icons of all-time, others praised Drake for the surprise move and crowned him the GOAT for taking rap battles into the digital age.
Needless to say, Snoop Dogg was shocked that he somehow ended up on a new record without his knowledge. Tupac Shakur’s estate wasn’t amused at all and slapped Drake with a cease-and-desist letter, which threatened him with a lawsuit if he didn’t take the song down from his page.
According to USA Today, the message was received and the song is now as ghost as the spirit of the man who was featured on it.
Per USA Today:
In a letter obtained by USA TODAY Wednesday, the estate of Tupac and his mother, Afeni Shakur, says it’s “deeply dismayed and disappointed by your unauthorized use of Tupac’s voice and personality in the ‘Taylor Made (Freestyle)’ record.”
The letter continues, “We demand that you immediately cease and desist from any further publication and exploitation of the Record, and that you immediately take ALL NECESSARY steps to remove it from all platforms where it is publicly available.”
The release is “a flagrant violation of Tupac’s publicity and the Estate’s legal rights. … The Estate would never have given its approval for this use,” the letter states. “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.”
And with that, the King of the North had to bow down to the rap legend’s representatives as he had no desire to take this battle to the courts.
Meanwhile, the Hip-Hop world continues to await a response from Kendrick Lamar. His silence has fans wondering if he’ll even continue to participate in the battle that he set off with his verse on Future and Metro Boomin’s “Like That” just last month.
We’re starting to lose faith that he will, but to each his own.
What do y’all think of this situation? Did y’all even like the song? Let us know in the comments section below.
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Source: L. Busacca / Getty / Tupac Shakur
Drake’s clever attempt at a Kendrick Lamar diss record could land him in legal hot water.
Spotted on HuffPost, the Estate of the late iconic rapper Tupac Shakur is threatening Drake with legal action for using an AI-generated voice of Shakur.
The Estate is giving the Canadian Hip-Hop star 24 hours to take down his latest Kendrick Lamar diss track, “Taylor Made Freestyle.” The track features AI-generated voices of Tupac Shakur and Snoop Dogg urging their West Coast brethren to defend his honor on wax. Drake’s verse uses the 8-mile tactic of taking all the possible insults Lamar can use off the table by pointing them out.
In the song, the fake Tupac tells K.Dot, “You asked for the smoke, now it seems you too busy for the smoke.”
Per Billboard, the cease-and-desist letter that the Shakur estate slapped Drake, real name Aubrey Graham.
The HuffPost Reports:
“The Estate is deeply dismayed and disappointed by your unauthorized use of Tupac’s voice and personality,” attorney Howard King wrote in the letter, according to Billboard. “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 would never have given its approval for this use.”
Snoop Dogg Also Had Something To Say
Following the Friday release of “Taylor Made Freestyle,” Snoop Dogg took to his Instagram account to drop a hilarious reaction to Drake using an AI version of his voice.
“They did what? When? How? Are you sure? [Sigh] Y’all have a good night,” Snoop said in the Instagram clip. “Why everybody calling my phone, blowing me up? What the fuck— what happened? What’s going on? I’m going back to bed. Good night.”
We are curious to see how this plays out.
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It looks like Rick Ross really wants all the smoke with the Canadian crooner/rapper known as Drake. The Bawse done went and unnecessarily made a music video for the diss track he released just last week.
After days of going back and forth on social media with accusations of BBL’s and getting mothers involved, Rozay has decided to give his Drizzy diss cut, “Champagne Moments,” the visual treatment just when it seemed like the feud had begun to die down a bit.
Sitting in an airplane hanger with an old-school Chevy Bel Air playing the background (an obvious reference to a bar in the song in which Ross asks Drake if he owns one) and his liquor brands next to his person, an iced out Ross drops his rhymes while puffing on some magic dragon; this is just another day at the office for him. Rick Ross really seems to be enjoying indulging in this drama. The man even showed off his belly when talking about Drake’s alleged six-pack surgery (which led to the “BBL” Drake nickname) before bursting out into laughter.
Will Drake respond with a video of his own for “Push Ups” or nah? Guess we’ll have to wait and see.
Peep the video for Rick Ross’ “Champagne Moments” below, and let us know your thoughts on the joint in the comments section.
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Source: Eric Charbonneau / Getty / Snoop Dogg
Snoop Dogg has found his way into the current “beef” between Kendrick Lamar and Drake, and it had nothing to do with him actually interjecting himself in it but with the use of AI.
Like the rest of the Hip-Hop and music world, Snoop Dogg was stunned to hear AI voice on Drake’s latest diss track at Kendrick Lamer, “Taylor Made Freestyle.”
On Friday (April 19), Drake released his “Taylor Made Freestyle,” which features the computer-generated voices of Snoop Dogg and the late 2Pac “pressing” their West Coast counterpart to respond to Drizzy.
On the song virtual Snoop raps:
“Dot, you know that the D-O-G never fucking doubted you/ But right now it seem like you posted up without a clue of what the fuck you ’bout to do.”
Not too long after the divisive record hit the internet, the Doggfather took to his Instagram account to post a hilarious reaction to AI bars.
“They did what? When? How? Are you sure? [Sigh] Y’all have a good night,” Snoop said in the Instagram clip. “Why everybody calling my phone, blowing me up? What the fuck— what happened? What’s going on? I’m going back to bed. Good night.”
Will Kendrick Lamar Finally Respond To Drake?
“Taylor Made Freestyle” comes a week after Drake’s first response record, “Push Ups.” When the song hit the internet, thanks to the rampant AI use in the music industry, the song’s validity was initially up in the air.
On the song, Drizzy accuses Lamar of taking his sweet time to respond due to Taylor Swift dropping a new album while also naming TDE’s boss, Anthony “Top Dawg” Tiffith.
“But now we gotta wait a fucking week ’cause Taylor Swift is your new Top/ And if you ’bout to drop, she gotta approve/ This girl really ’bout to make you act like you not in a feud/ She tailor made your schedule with Ant, you out of the loop.
While Drake continues to poke the bear, word on the podcast streets is that K.Dot has a response record ready, according to Joe Budden Podcast host Antwan “Ish” Marby, who claims the record is on the level of 2Pac’s “Hit Em Up.”
“Some people that have heard the Kendrick track, I heard that his energy is just something that’s going to be hard for Drake to match. They said he’s coming on some Pac’ Hit Em Up’ energy,” Ish claims.
We shall see if that’s the case. We just want Kendrick Lamar to take his time and deliver a worthy response, no one wants a wack a** diss record.
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Drake is currently on the offensive after officially dropping the “Push Ups” track, which aims at Kendrick Lamar, Rick Ross, and Future. As the ongoing war of words continues, Drake pulled off what some online are calling a masterful stroke with an AI-rendered diss track aimed at Kendrick Lamar using the voices of Snoop Dogg and the late Tupac “2Pac” Shakur.
The AI-assisted track, titled “Taylor Made,” hit social media over the weekend with Drake posting the full audio across his socials. In the track, Drizzy uses AI to rap from the perspective of 2Pac and Snoop Dogg, using the iconic stars’ voices to coach K-Dot on how to diss the Canadian superstar.
From “Taylor Made”:
(As 2Pac)Kendrick, we need ya, the West Coast saviorEngraving your name in some hip-hop historyIf you deal with this viciouslyYou seem a little nervous about all the publicityFuck this Canadian lightskin, DotWe need a no-debated West Coast victory, manCall him a bitch for meTalk about him liking young girls, that’s a gift from meHeard it on the Budden Podcast, it’s gotta be trueThey told me the spirit of Makaveli is aliveIn the n*gga under 5’5″, so it’s gotta be you
Snoop Dogg’s voice is used for the second portion of the song with some of the bars reading:
Nephew, what the f*ck you really ’bout to do?We passed you the torch at the House of BluesAnd now you got to do some dirty work, you know how to move, right? Right?I know you never been to jail, or wore jumpsuits and shower shoesNever shot nobody, never stabbed nobodyNever did nothing violent to no one, it’s the homies that empower youBut still, you gotta show this f*cking owl who’s boss on the WestNow’s a time to really make a power move
As Drake keeps attempting to goad Kendrick Lamar into responding, it doesn’t appear that he had any more bars for Rick Ross after taking shots at his former friend via the “Push Ups” track.
Breaking the wall here and speaking for myself, I don’t have a strong opinion regarding who is winning this mock meat tussle. I just want to hear some bars from these great rappers and that it all stays on wax without getting weird or personal. Anything else is too toxic for me. There you have it, that’s my view of things so far. – D.L.
Reactions to Drake’s latest salvo have been cropping up since the drop of the “Taylor Made” freestyle. Check out the song and the reactions below. Also, it appears Snoop Dogg also reacted to the news. Check out that video too.
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1. Is he monetizing it? Doesn’t seem so but what do we know?
8. Thoughts?
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For those still invested in this Rap Royal Rumble involving Drake, Rick Ross, Kendrick Lamar, J. Cole, Future, and Metro Boomin, it’s been a festive time for those fans. While there hasn’t been much music to emerge from this battle, there has been plenty of back-and-forth between Drake and Rick Ross as the pair trade online insults.
For those not following this mock meat mayhem as deeply as we have to in the media, Drake threw a shot at Rick Ross on the diss track “Push Ups” which prompted Rozay to fire back with the “Champagne Moments” track. From there, Ross went on Instagram and dropped videos attacking the Canadian superstar’s biracial upbringing, an alleged nose job, an alleged BBL, and dropped some ab sculpting claims.
Drake fired back via his Instagram Stories feed, sharing a text message exchange allegedly between him and his mother. This caused Ross to double down on the “white boy” refrain and attack Drake’s character. Drizzy fired back by making light of the size of Ross’ home in Miami’s Star Island, referring to it as a content creator house among other quips. Further, the OVO honcho called Ross a “worker” for Sovereign Brands owner Brett Berish, which produces the Luc Belaire brand of wine and champagne.
In the midst of all this, there have been fake diss tracks leaked that were later found to be constructed by artificial intelligence, Lupe Fiasco calling out anyone who wants to test, and every podcast in the nation has endlessly debated this dustup.
As it stands, not much music has come from these exchanges, and this appears to be dividing the fan bases of the aforementioned acts greatly. Even with that division hanging over the culture, fans are seemingly excited about this tofu tussle.
We’ve got reactions to all the shenanigans below.
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1. It’d be incredibly corny if so.
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A Texas judge has dismissed Drake from an impending civil lawsuit related to the deaths that occurred at Travis Scott’s Astroworld festival two and a half years ago.
The judge overseeing the Astroworld trial has granted Drake’s request to be dropped as a defendant in response to a request from his legal representation. The decision was recently made by Harris County Judge Kristen Hawkins. Judge Hawkins also dropped Epic Records, Travis Scott’s record label, as a defendant in the upcoming trial in addition to several other companies that were named. Travis Scott, however, had his request to be dismissed denied and will remain a defendant along with his Cactus Jack Enterprises group, LeFlame Enterprises, Front Gate Ticketing Solutions, Apex Security Group, Apple Inc., Sascha Stone Guttfreund, Valle Services and Valle Security Texas who were involved in the planning of the festival.
Drake had requested to be dismissed on the basis that he was a guest of Scott. The Her Loss rapper was onstage with Scott at the festival, which took place at NRG Park in Scott’s hometown of Houston, Texas. Shortly afterward, the crowd surged crushing numerous individuals in an attempt to be closer to the stage. Ten people – including a 9-year-old child – lost their lives as a result, with many more claiming various injuries. The main lawsuit came about as a consolidation of multiple individual lawsuits that were filed after the incident.
The civil trial is expected to commence next month. There will be no criminal trial against Scott after a grand jury decided to “no bill” on all counts based on the evidence presented to them last summer. “While we are incredibly disappointed that Mr. Travis Scott will not be indicted on charges stemming from the senseless tragedies and chaos that occurred at Astroworld, we are undeterred and will continue fighting every day on behalf of the hundreds of injury victims – who simply intended to attend a concert for a night of fun – to ensure responsible parties are held accountable in the ongoing pursuit of justice,” said Kevin Haynes, a lawyer representing some of the victims at the time.
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Rick Ross went up against one of the pettiest rappers in history when he was feuding with 50 Cent many years ago. So it should be no surprise that he clearly applied those lessons when quickly retorting to the bars Drake aimed at his head when the 6 God dropped “Drop & Give Me 50.”
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On “Drop & Give Me 50,” which leaked on Saturday (April 13) and many initially suspected was AI-generated, Drake went at Kendrick Lamar, Future, Metro Boomin, Rick Ross and The Weeknd. As for Rozay, Drake said the Miami rapper’s biggest records owed a lot to his lyrical contributions (“I might take your latest girl and cuff her like I’m Ricky/Can’t believe he jumpin’ in, this n*gga turnin’ 50/Every song that made it on the chart, he got from Drizzy,” rapped Drake”)
Rozay returned fire the same day with “Champagne Moments,” and he pulled no punches, and heaped on the slander, repeatedly calling Drake “White Boy” throughout the song. “N*ggas leakin’ their records when we speakin’ directly/If we keeping it gangsta, when you see me, you check me,” spits Rozay over the dramatic instrumental.
But the sh*t talking after the rapping was more dastardly as he accused Drake of sending French Montana a cease-and-desist letter (thus, why he unfollowed him on Instagram) and even accused the Toronto rapper of getting a nose job.
To this, Drake told his momma, adding that Rozay had gone racist, allegedly. Okay.
But to show how extra surly Renzel was moving, he sported a hoodie emblazoned with Drake’s image for a performance the same evening he dropped his diss song. Nefarious.
And the next day (April 14) Ross is still going in, using Drake texting his momma about their beef as more fuel to clown “BBL Drizzy” about allegedly faked abs and to call his crew the “Pastrami Posse.”
Clearly, Renzel was ready for the smoke. Check out “Champagne Moments” below and reactions to Rick Ross’ retort in the gallery.
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4. 6 Pack Slander
11. Mystery Solved?
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Drake is taking more shots than the height of the COVID-19 vaccine run after catching some bars from Kendrick Lamar earlier this month. On Future and Metro Boomin‘s latest project, WE STILL DON’T TRUST YOU, The Weeknd and A$AP Rocky delivered additional jabs and uppercuts in the direction of Drake.
If it wasn’t clear before, Drake certainly appears to be in an all-out war with several heavy hitters in the industry. As mentioned above, K-Dot didn’t hold back on his feature verse on “Like That” from Future and Metro Boomin’s WE DON’T TRUST YOU album.
The Canadian superstar was targeted once again on the follow-up WE STILL DON’T TRUST YOU by his fellow countryman The Weeknd on the track “All To Myself” which doesn’t name Drizzy but certainly seems to be about him.
“These n*ggas always yappin’, yeah/ I promise that I got your back/ Ooh, look at how we movin’, baby/ They could never diss my brothers, baby/ When they got leaks in they operation/ I thank God that I never signed my life away/ And we never do the big talk/ They shooters makin’ TikToks/ Got us laughin’ in the Lambo.”
The lyrics seem to point to the fact The Weeknd never signed to Drake’s OVO Sound label despite being from the same city. The latter portion of the verse seems to be aimed at OVO Sound artist Baka Not Nice.
A$AP Rocky, who probably owed Drake a few more bars than he’s already given him, appears to get at the For All The Dogs star on the track, “Show Of Hands.”
“N*ggas swear they bitch the baddest, I just bagged the worst one/ N*ggas in they feelings over women, what, you hurt or somethin’?/ I smashed before you birthed son, Flacko hit it first, son,” Rocky said, appearing to suggest he slept with the mother of Drake’s child before he did.
Adding to all of this, J. Cole, who was swept in the Rap Royal Rumble but backed out during the Dreamville Festival, is featured on the track “Red Leather” which some fans are looking at sideways.
On X, formerly Twitter, the fans are breaking down the bars while connecting the dots. Check out the reactions below.
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ESPN host Stephen A. Smith is siding with Drake in his brewing rap beef with Kendrick Lamar in the latest Drink Champs episode.
It’s not an understatement to say that Stephen A. Smith, the host of ESPN’s First Take, is highly opinionated. So in his appearance as a guest on the Drink Champs podcast, the talkative media personality was asked for his take on who he’d pick in the burgeoning rap beef between Kendrick Lamar and Drake. “First of all, major props to both of them,” Smith began. “I’m gonna go with Drake because even though everybody knows Kendrick Lamar and knows how gifted he is, you got too many people periodically trying to come at Drake, and he’s always standing.”
The veteran sports journalist added, “I mean, he’s one of those dudes. It could be the look, it could be how he communicates, it could be his flavor—it could be anything. But Drake damn near seems impenetrable, and what I take from Drake is, I don’t hear too many people coming at Kendrick Lamar.” Smith finished his point by sympathizing with the Certified Lover Boy rapper, likening the constant scorn he gets to what Drake goes through. “But everybody always trying to come at Drake, and, obviously, I can relate to that,” he said.
Smith’s voice is the latest to chime in on the tension between Drake and Kendrick Lamar, which took on another level after J. Cole released his Might Delete Later project last Friday (April 5). It contained the track “7 Minute Drill,” which leveled serious jabs at Kendrick Lamar. The track was in response to the verse the To Pimp A Butterfly rapper delivered on “Like That” from Future and Metro Boomin’s recent album. Cole would later declare that the song didn’t sit right with him at his Dreamville Festival on Sunday (April 7) and offer up an apology on stage.