Snoop Dogg‘s voice has been thrust into the center of a class action lawsuit against a Florida-based company that promises to help small business owners with obtaining Employee Retention Credit (ERC) refunds.
According to court documents obtained by HipHopDX, Qiana Martin filed a class action lawsuit against Bottom Line Concepts on Wednesday (September 27), in which she alleged that the Doggfather’s voice — or something similar to it — was used to try to entice her into doing business with Bottom Line.
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Martin also alleged that she never gave Bottom Line permission to call her, and that their persistence in using robocalls to try to entice her to do business with them is a violation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act.
“Most recently, on August 30, 2023 at 3:02pm, Ms. Martin received a prerecorded call from (800) 728-9015, which left the following prerecorded message on her voicemail, in the voice of famous rapper Snoop Dogg,” she wrote in Paragraph 20 of the complaint. “[beginning cut off]. . . you might be sitting on a refund that’s rightfully yours. But, check this out I got a hook up for you.”
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The voicemail continued: “It’s called ERCENROLL.COM and they got the game on lock. Now here’s the kicker. These folks at ERCENROLL.COM, they got connections like no other. They can have them funds in your hands quicker than you can roll up your favorite . . . well, you know what I mean. We’re talking just a couple weeks and BOOM you got that cash flowing back where it belongs. So, if you’re a business owner who’s been through the thick of it, don’t miss out on this golden opportunity. Slide on over to ERCENROLL.COM. Let them know Snoop Dogg sent you and watch the magic happen. It’s all about getting what’s yours baby. ERCENROLL.COM. They’re the real deal and they got that fast track hook up y’all. Snoop Dogg stamp of approval baby. Peace out.”
A copy of the complaint can be seen below.
HipHopDX has reached out to the attorneys for Martin and Bottom Line Concepts’ CEO, Josh Martin, as well as representatives for Snoop Dogg, for comment.
News of this class action lawsuit comes hot on the heels of the announcement of Snoop Dogg joining other celebrities like Charlie D’Amelio, Tom Brady, and Paris Hilton in the preliminary launch of AI chatbots on their behalf for Facebook and Instagram.
“This isn’t just gonna be about answering queries,” said Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Meta, which is the parent company of Facebook and Instagram. “This is about entertainment and about helping you do things to connect with the people around you.”
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In its initial launch phase, the AI chatbots will only be responding to queries via text — in other words, the user won’t be able to hear Snoop Dogg’s voice, or his avatar speaking. However, Zuckerberg promises that this feature is in development, and will be available sometime in 2024.
Questions are being raised about the viability — and ethics — around such ventures. Snoop himself expressed skepticism about the possibility of an AI album of Biggie/2Pac duets earlier this year.
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“I don’t really know about that, with the AI,” he said at the time. “Because, that’s kinda like, computerized voices. You know? [But] I think if they can find some old tracks with their vocals, and put them together, that sounds better to me.”
