Biggie may have been gone for 26 years but a cover of Nas’ ’90s classic “N.Y. State of Mind” by an AI version of the late legend has gone viral on social media — and fans have been left bewildered by it.
Over the weekend, a computerized version of the late Brooklyn legend’s vocals were used to rework the Illmatic anthem as the AI craze continues to make waves in Hip Hop.
Many were conflicted at hearing B.I.G.’s unlabored flow instead of Nas while some even thought he rhymed better than the Queensbridge deity.
“Cant believe i just listened 5 minutes of biggie rapping ny state of mind,” one person wrote on the viral TikTok comment section, while another added on Twitter: “AI just confirming that everything sounds better when it’s rapped by Biggie. Also, this is mental.”
Others saluted Nas’ flow: “The cadence is definitely unique to Nas. Dam I didn’t realize how unique his cadence was. It don’t sound right on Big.”
Check out the AI cover below:
@aiverse2 Ny state or mind 🔥#fyp #ai #aicover #biggie #fypage #nas #fypシ #rap ♬ N.Y. State of Mind – Nas
AI has opened a new frontier for record labels and the music industry as a whole to deal with when it comes to copyright and vocal protection.
“UMG’s success has been, in part, due to embracing new technology and putting it to work for our artists — as we have been doing with our own innovation around AI for some time already,” Universal Music Group wrote in a statement in response to “deep fakes” and the AI craze.
“With that said, however, the training of generative AI using our artists’ music (which represents both a breach of our agreements and a violation of copyright law) as well as the availability of infringing content created with generative AI on DSPs, begs the question as to which side of history all stakeholders in the music ecosystem want to be on: the side of artists, fans and human creative expression, or on the side of deep fakes, fraud and denying artists their due compensation.”
Drake has been the subject of several viral AI tracks with artificial song titles like “Winter’s Cold,” “Not A Game,” and “Heart On My Sleeve” featuring The Weeknd making the rounds.
After initially being posted on Youtube by someone named Ghostwriter, the “Heart On My Sleeve” was then shared to Apple, Tidal, Deezer and Spotify. It had reportedly racked up over 630,000 listens on the latter.
Find more reactions to Biggie’s AI cover of “N.Y. State of Mind” below:
Ehhh…at times is sounded like BIG, at other times it sounded like Jim Jones lmao. It’s missing the bass in BIG’s real voice that made it so distinctive.
And the heavy breathing
These must be teenagers impressed with this goofy shit. Sure from the tech level its pretty cool, but BIG voice doesn’t sound right with Nas rhyme patterns.
It will in just a few short years.
Facts. This just sound stupid biggie didnt flow like this he’d have needed 5 asthma inhalers for 4 bars worth of rhymes.
It needs some refinement record companys shitting themselves hahaha oh well this could lead on to piracy it should
Sounds like Jim Jones after his first shower lol
It ain’t nuthin compared to the Snoop Dogg cover of GUMMO by King Tekashi.
Damn I slept through the original but this version is better
Shut your dumb ass up
Biggie out rapped Nas on this one
$l!M€, please won’t you please let me suck your cock!
Fake account. You slander other users and borrow names bc you are a closeted homosexual scared to reveal themselves to the world. Seek therapy and live your life.
@ HHDX you always defend $l!ME, your boyfriend must be very proud when you standup for him. You should’ve been aborted and maybe your parents wouldn’t be ashamed of you for being a fag. Oh and you still can’t do shit about me taking your name, ya bitch.
The world needs AI to clean Griselda albums off of the fucking addlibs