Meek Mill has said he’s a huge fan of the controversial AI-generated Drake and The Weeknd song, despite Universal Music Group’s recent condemnation of the track.
Meek’s support comes a day after UMG, to whom Drizzy and The Weeknd are both currently signed, issued a statement on the song — which was titled “heart on my sleeve” — and removed the track from all streaming platforms after it racked up over 630,000 listens on Spotify alone.
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“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,” the statement began.
“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.”
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Regardless, the Philadelphia rapper couldn’t help but admit the track is catchy, and said the AI tune just shows how desperately the world craves new music from Aubrey Graham and Abel Tesfaye.
“This my 5th time banging this and it’s flame,” Meek wrote on Twitter. “We need new music from y’all 2.”
The track comes amidst growing concern about AI technology infiltrating the music industry. UMG previously issued a P.S.A. in the Financial Times, pleading for major streaming services to block AI platforms from using its music to “train” their technology.
“We have a moral and commercial responsibility to our artists to work to prevent the unauthorized use of their music and to stop platforms from ingesting content that violates the rights of artists and other creators,” a rep for UMG said. “We expect our platform partners will want to prevent their services from being used in ways that harm artists.”
Whether Drake or The Weeknd have heard “heart on my sleeve” is unclear, but the former has already expressed his disdain for AI. After an AI-augmented Drizzy covered Ice Spice’s “Munch (Feelin’ U)” earlier this month, the real Drake called it “the final straw.”
Other artists are also sounding the alarm. After an AI-generated JAY-Z verse also went viral earlier this year, Young Guru, 9th Wonder and DJ Clark Kent all expressed concern, with Guru calling for the government to intervene.
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“We have to learn from past mistakes. You would be a fool to chase every person that is going to do this,” Hov’s longtime engineer wrote on Instagram. “We learned that lesson with Napster. The only way I see to deal with it is to change the law. There are so many different opinions. We could change the United States law tomorrow but the internet is world wide. What a time we live in!!”
Meanwhile, the last time the real Drake and The Weeknd joined forces was on 2013’s “Live For,” off the latter’s sophomore album Kissland.
