Do you ever wonder what Sheryl Crow's opinion on hip-hop beef is like? Look no further than the rockstar slamming Drake's use in his diss track, "Taylor Made Freestyle."
Recently, The BBC interviews Sheryl about the usage of artificial intelligence in artistic mediums. She calls it a "slippery slope" in the broad sense. But most importantly, she doesn't like it when people in positions of power utilize it to copy and mimic the voice of artists, especially without consent.
For context, Drake gets into a spat with fellow superstar rapper Kendrick Lamar. In their diss tracks back and forth with one another, Drake invokes the voice of the late hip-hop icon Tupac Shakur. Shortly after, the Tupac estate sends a cease-and-desist, resulting in Drake personally deleting the record. However, knowing the internet, the damage is already done and have record of the whole debacle. Sheryl Crow knows it too.
Sheryl Crow Highlights The Dangers of Using AI in Music and Art
Crow slams Drake's use of AI in his diss track. She draws a morale line in how we strip the livelihoods of our fellow man or woman by robbing them of their voices and expression. "You cannot bring people back from the dead and believe that they would stand for that," Sheryl emphasizes. "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. It is antithetical to the life force that exists in all of us."
She doubles down on this stance by relaying an experience with a songwriter using AI. The songwriter uses the tool in order to replicate John Mayer's voice . Consequently, they could properly invoke Mayer and capture how he would sing a song they wrote. Sheryl expresses the danger in hardly distinguishing the difference between real and fake. "I know John, and I know the nuances of his voice," Crow explains. "And there would be no way you'd have been able to tell that he was not singing that song."
