No weapon formed against K.Dot shall prosper, apparently. The estate of Tupac Shakur successfully got Drake to cease and desist streaming “Taylor Made Freestyle,” which uses AI-generated Tupac and Snoop Dogg to diss Kendrick Lamar. Below, the latest updates on rap beef so convoluted the ghost of Tupac is involved.
No ‘California Love’ For Drake
April 24, 2024: Turns out there’s someone even less stoked than Snoop Dogg to find themself inserted into Drake’s drama. The estate of Tupac Shakur has sent a cease and desist to Drizzy over “Taylor Made Freestyle,” demanding the song be pulled from streaming services or face a lawsuit. “The Estate is deeply dismayed and disappointed by your unauthorized use of Tupac’s voice and personality,” it reads. “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.” Howard King, the estate’s attorney, also demanded “a detailed explanation for how the sound-alike was created and the persons or company that created it, including all recordings and other data ‘scraped’ or used.” He points out that the AI Shakur would have had to be trained on something, most likely the estate’s copyrighted intellectual property. Drake has 24 hours to take down “Taylor Made” before further legal action is taken. —Bethy Squires
Drake’s Retreat
April 26, 2024: Drake was gonna bring out the coward in who? After receiving the Tupac estate’s cease and desist, Drake has pulled “Taylor Made Freestyle” off streaming, as Billboard reports. The track is now the second casualty of this beef, after J. Cole took his own Kendrick diss, “7 Minute Drill,” off streaming earlier. Drake and the Tupac estate both declined to comment on the new takedown to Billboard. But the Pac estate has to be Team Kendrick, right? —Justin Curto
