Timbaland is facing criticism within the rap and hip-hop music communities for verses in his new unreleased song featuring an AI-generated Notorious B.I.G.

The infamous Virginia-born rapper and producer stirred much debate after teasing fans with a snippet of his new music. In a video posted to his instagram, he played lyrics from an AI-generated impression of iconic Brooklyn hip-hop icon Biggie Smalls.

In the video, Timbaland, born Timothy Mosley, first denounces AI-generated music, before stating rather mystically that he has a “solution”.

 

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Timbaland then says, “I always wanted to work with [Biggie Smalls] and I never got a chance to…until today”, before playing the track.

The audio plays for 30 seconds, with AI-generated vocals of Biggie Smalls over a bass-driven hip hop beat. Without prior knowledge, you would easily mistake the sound for that of the real Notorious B.I.G., despite the fact he passed away more than 26 years ago.

In the verse, the AI Biggie raps the line, “She’s not giving”, a reference to slang from an era started long after the artist’s own death.

An ethical question has always arisen when it comes to the release of music from dead music artists. More and more posthumous albums from rap artists are hitting the charts these days, with big names such as Mac Miller, Pop Smoke and Juice Wrld all having music released within the last three years after their untimely deaths.

AI-generated voices of dead artists is however a whole different moral dilemma for producers and listeners to deal with. 2023 has seen a greater utilisation of online Artificial intelligence tools such as ChatGPT, as well as sites such as boomy.com that can be used to generate AI music. The Weeknd and Drake were mashed together to forge AI song 'Heart On My Sleeve' in recent months.

The rise in Artificial intelligence poses a threat not only to people’s jobs in industries such as the music industry, but also to the very soul of music and of art. The digitalisation of music takes the creativity and love out of it, instead producing a heartless product made only to earn streams, but not to connect with listeners as artists do.

Timbaland has released three studio albums and is best known for his appearances on tracks such as Sexyback with Justin Timberlake, and Promiscuous with Nelly Furtado.