Biggie may have been gone for 26 years but a cover of Nas’ ’90s classic “N.Y. State of Mind” by an AI version of the late legend has gone viral on social media — and fans have been left bewildered by it.
Over the weekend, a computerized version of the late Brooklyn legend’s vocals were used to rework the Illmatic anthem as the AI craze continues to make waves in Hip Hop.
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Many were conflicted at hearing B.I.G.’s unlabored flow instead of Nas while some even thought he rhymed better than the Queensbridge deity.
“Cant believe i just listened 5 minutes of biggie rapping ny state of mind,” one person wrote on the viral TikTok comment section, while another added on Twitter: “AI just confirming that everything sounds better when it’s rapped by Biggie. Also, this is mental.”
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Others saluted Nas’ flow: “The cadence is definitely unique to Nas. Dam I didn’t realize how unique his cadence was. It don’t sound right on Big.”
Check out the AI cover below:
@aiverse2 Ny state or mind 🔥#fyp#ai#aicover#biggie#fypage#nas#fypシ#rap♬ N.Y. State of Mind – Nas
AI has opened a new frontier for record labels and the music industry as a whole to deal with when it comes to copyright and vocal protection.
“UMG’s success has been, in part, due to embracing new technology and putting it to work for our artists — as we have been doing with our own innovation around AI for some time already,” Universal Music Group wrote in a statement in response to “deep fakes” and the AI craze.
“With that said, however, the training of generative AI using our artists’ music (which represents both a breach of our agreements and a violation of copyright law) as well as the availability of infringing content created with generative AI on DSPs, begs the question as to which side of history all stakeholders in the music ecosystem want to be on: the side of artists, fans and human creative expression, or on the side of deep fakes, fraud and denying artists their due compensation.”
Drake has been the subject of several viral AI tracks with artificial song titles like “Winter’s Cold,” “Not A Game,” and “Heart On My Sleeve” featuring The Weeknd making the rounds.
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After initially being posted on Youtube by someone named Ghostwriter, the “Heart On My Sleeve” was then shared to Apple, Tidal, Deezer and Spotify. It had reportedly racked up over 630,000 listens on the latter.
Find more reactions to Biggie’s AI cover of “N.Y. State of Mind” below:
