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Home / Music and sport / Tupac Shakur's estate forced Drake to delete a song that used an AI copy of Tupac's voice
Case file s345 · Music and sport · 1996
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1996
Tupac Shakur: Tupac Shakur in 1995
Tupac Shakur. Unknown author. Public domain, Wikimedia Commons.
Died
13 September 1996; dispute April 2024
Place
Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
Field
music · Music on the timeline
Legal tradition
US common law (California right of publicity) · Common law
Historical event
the 2024 Drake and Kendrick Lamar feud
Religion
Tupac Shakur: Other Christian (recorded as African-American Christians on Wikipedia)
Music and sportPostwarNorth AmericaUnited States

Tupac Shakur's estate forced Drake to delete a song that used an AI copy of Tupac's voice

On 19 April 2024, during his feud with Kendrick Lamar, Drake released "Taylor Made Freestyle." Its first verse used an AI-generated copy of Tupac Shakur's voice and its second an AI copy of Snoop Dogg's. Tupac had been dead for nearly 28 years. His estate, through lawyer Howard King, sent Drake a cease-and-desist letter, reported on 24 April 2024. It said the use of Tupac's voice and likeness violated his personality rights, and that the estate would sue if the track stayed up. Drake removed the song from all platforms within days. No lawsuit was filed. The estate's position was that a dead performer's voice is part of his likeness, and the likeness belongs to the estate.

What the law took from it

California's post-mortem right of publicity lets an estate stop a living star from cloning a dead one.

Sources
  1. NBC NewsPress
  2. BillboardPress
  3. VarietyPress

Cite as: celebrity.estate, “Tupac Shakur's estate forced Drake to delete a song that used an AI copy of Tupac's voice,” story s345, https://www.celebrity.estate/tupac-shakur-1996, updated 30 October 2026.

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Where this case sits

Music and sportPostwarNorth AmericaCommon lawUnited States