Drake's diss track "Taylor Made Freestyle" has been removed from his X and Instagram accounts, days after Tupac Shakur's estate threatened to sue him for appearing to use an artificial intelligence-generated version of the late rapper’s voice.
In a cease-and-desist letter sent on Wednesday, Howard King, an attorney who represents Shakur’s estate, requested that Drake remove the track from all platforms where it is publicly available.
The letter warned that Drake’s nonconsensual use of Shakur’s likeness violates Shakur’s right to publicity, an intellectual property right protecting against the misappropriation of somebody’s name or image.
Drake, whose legal name is Aubrey Drake Graham, had until noon Thursday to confirm his cooperation, according to the letter, a copy of which was obtained by NBC News.
A spokesperson for Drake declined to comment on Friday.
"Taylor Made Freestyle" dropped about a month after rapper Kendrick Lamar took shots at Drake and fellow rapper J. Cole in a guest verse on the song “Like That” by rapper Future and producer Metro Boomin. The verse stirred fan speculation online about whether Drake would respond.
Drake ended up firing back with the song “Push Ups," as well as “Taylor Made Freestyle."
“Kendrick, we need ya, the West Coast savior / Engraving your name in some hip-hop history / If you deal with this viciously / You seem a little nervous about all the publicity,” the AI-generated voice of Shakur raps in the "Taylor Made Freestyle."
In his letter, King wrote that the track is "a flagrant violation of Tupac’s publicity and the estate’s legal rights" and that "it is also a blatant abuse of the legacy of one of the greatest hip-hop artists of all time."
“The Estate would never have given its approval for this use," he wrote.
