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Despite all the debates about AI's place in the music industry, Timbaland decided to use AI to cook up his dream collaboration with the late Notorious B.I.G.
On Tuesday, May 2, the Grammy award-winning producer previewed a song he made with AI-generated vocals from Biggie Smalls. On the record, you can hear the Brooklyn rapper's voice spit a fresh verse in which he shouts out other deceased artists like Pop Smoke and Nipsey Hussle. Before he played the unreleased track, Timbaland explained that he's currently working on a solution to make AI "beneficial for everybody" and tagged Young Guru in his post to get his blessing.
"I’m sitting here with my brother, Creatr God, and we know that it’s a lot of talk about AI and we know how the feelings of violating certain things,” Timbo said in the video. “But let me tell you something: I got a solution. I’m working on it. It’s gonna be beneficial to everybody. In the meantime, I gotta share something I’ve been working on because I always wanted to do this and I never got a chance to. I always wanted to work with Big and I never got a chance to.. until today. It came out right!"
Timbaland wanted to get Guru's opinion because the esteemed producer has been vocal about the dangers of AI in the music industry. Back in February, Guru voiced his concerns about the use of artificial intelligence after AI-generated verses from JAY-Z began to go viral. He noted that the laws need to be updated to further protect artists in a lengthy Instagram post.
As of this report, Young Guru has not publicly responded to Timbaland's dream collaboration with the late Biggie Smalls.