'It's Hateful': Sheryl Crow Criticizes Drake for Using Late Rapper Tupac Shakur's AI-Generated Voice in Kendrick Lamar Diss Track

Sheryl Crow wasn't pleased Drake decided to use artificial intelligence to feature late rapper Tupac Shakur in his recent Kendrick Lamar diss track "Taylor Made Freestyle."

"You cannot bring people back from the dead and believe that they would stand for that," Crow said in a recent BBC interview. "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," she added. "It is antithetical to the life force that exists in all of us."

Later in the interview, Crow revealed that she talks with her children about the potential dangers of AI and what it means for music and art.

"I'm like, ‘You're growing up with this thing and it doesn't seem dangerous to you because you're a frog in a pot of water. But the water is only just starting to boil, and you won’t realize it's getting hotter until we're all floating on the top,'" she explained.

"AI can do lots of things, but it can't go out and play live," she continued. "So as long as we have live music, as long as we have hands holding a paintbrush, all is not lost."

Following the release of Drake's controversial track, Howard E. King — who represents Shakur's estate — sent a cease-and-desist letter in which he dubbed the song "a flagrant violation of Tupac’s publicity and the Estate’s legal right."

"The Estate is deeply dismayed and disappointed by your unauthorized use of Tupac’s voice and personality," he wrote in the letter. "It is also a blatant abuse of the legacy of one of the greatest hip-hop artists of all time."

He further claimed the track caused "substantial economic and reputational harm" by giving the "false impression that the estate and Tupac promote or endorse the lyrics for the sound-alike."

"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."

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Crow spoke with BBC about Drake's song.