Canadian rap artist Drake was forced to pull a diss track he had produced that used an AI-generated voice of Tupac Shakur.
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The AI train has left the station. Now, guardrails need to be hastily built to keep the technology from running the music industry off the tracks.
Canadian police and television reporters gather outside the rapper Drake’s Toronto mansion after a shooting there in May 2024.
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Since rap’s emergence, artists have boasted about themselves in ways that were funny and sometimes violent, vulgar and sexist. The popularity of the music and its exploitation can be dangerous.
The exhibit “Afrofuturism: A History of Black Futures” at the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C., on May 4, 2023.
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Since rap music emerged in mainstream culture in the late 1980s, politicians have derided its lyrics and imagery as violent. Over the years, rap has become an easy target to blame for violence.
Young Thug performs onstage on March 17, 2022, in Austin, Texas.
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Since rap music emerged in mainstream culture in the late 1980s, conservatives have derided its lyrics and imagery as violent. But hip-hop artists argue those images reflect urban realities.
Rapper Skibkhan in the video for ‘Shob Chup,’ which condemns the culture of silence around poverty and inequality in Bangladesh.
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In voicing youthful outrage over inequality and violence, Bangladeshi rappers are creating a powerful form of protest music — just as American MCs have done for 40 years.
In the work of many rappers today, the legacy of Tupac Shakur lives on.
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Something really magical is happening at the intersection between jazz and hip-hop at the moment. Many of the artists involved will be playing at Africa’s foremost jazz festival.