• Today In Rap
  • Posts
  • AI-Generated Kanye Vocals Create Mind-Blowing Song Snippet

AI-Generated Kanye Vocals Create Mind-Blowing Song Snippet

Album review: 6lack becomes a better man on 'Since I Have A Lover'

Tyler, the Creator does what he wants when he wants and this week that involves clearing out his hard drive for a deluxe edition of his album Call Me If You Get Lost, almost 2 years after the initial release. Fingers crossed it has a new A$AP Rocky x Tyler collab song on it. In other news today:

  • Billboard Hot 100 & song streams

  • Producer uses AI to generate Kanye vocals

  • Details on Tyler, the Creators’ new single & deluxe album

  • Jay-Z sponsored Damson Idris’ green card

  • 6lack’s Since I Have A Lover album review

  • Industry Insights

  • $100 cash giveaway

Hot 100 Ranking & Streams

The above chart shows Billboard’s Hot 100 ranking, as of today, and the corresponding song streams for the week of March 17-23rd as reported by Hits Double Daily (streaming weeks follow a Friday to Thursday schedule).

Billboard’s Hot 100 chart is updated every Tuesday and it ranks songs based on a combination of streaming activity, radio airplay audience impressions, and sales data—all measured by Luminate. The formula to determine their ranking is unknown but the stream data provides insight into how much of a song’s rank is attributed to sales and radio airplay.

Metro Boomin’s “Creeping” was streamed almost 10 million times less than PinkPantheress and Ice Spice’s “Boys a liar Pt. 2” but still ranked 2 spots higher.

Meanwhile, Toosii’s “Favorite Song” continues to climb in popularity, rising from 36 last week to 21 this week, achieving its highest spot on the Hot 100 to date.

Do you think the Hot 100 chart is an accurate reflection of a song's success?

Weigh in by clicking an option below

Login or Subscribe to participate in polls.

Producer Uses AI to Make His Vocals Sound Like Kanye & The Results Are Mind-Blowing

As AI continues to change life as we know it, tech entrepreneur Roberto Nickson posted a video on Twitter of an AI-generated Kanye verse that’s gone viral. Nickson wrote eight bars and recorded his own vocals over a Kanye-style YouTube beat and then used AI to replace his voice with Kanye’s.

The results are extremely realistic, AI didn’t just copy Kanye’s tone but imitated his cadences and enunciations. The lyrics are a telltale sign that it’s not an original Kanye song but with the way AI is developing, that might not be true forever.

How did he do it?

Nickson detailed his process using a YouTube tutorial that shows how to use Google Colab to access an existing AI model that’s been trained on Kanye’s voice. “Keep in mind, this is the worst AI will ever be. In just a few years, every popular musician will have multiple models trained after them,” Nickson says.

What does this mean for the industry?

When this technology becomes streamlined and integrated into Digital Audio Workstations, there will be legal and intellectual implications for the music industry.

Currently, the right of publicity is protected in numerous countries and would prohibit artists from using AI versions of another artist's vocals in commercially released music, without their permission.

The possibilities for artists to sell their voice in AI-powered plugins as merch or samples are endless, as are the dangers of imitation

Is this a good or bad thing for the future of music?

Weigh in by clicking an option below

Login or Subscribe to participate in polls.

Tyler, the Creator Drops “Dogtooth” Single & Announces ‘CMIYGL’ Deluxe Edition

Tyler, the Creator is downsizing his collection of unreleased songs by having an estate sale in the form of a deluxe album. Almost 2 years after the release of his Grammy award-winning album, Call Me If You Get Lost, the Odd Future rapper is releasing the deluxe edition with songs that didn’t make the cut back in 2021.

Call Me If You Get Lost: The Estate Sale is releasing this Friday, March 31st and as a pre-game, Tyler released a new single, “DOGTOOTH”, with an accompanying self-directed music video.

The song is an homage to giving and not receiving (a response to “Munch”?) starting with the brazen lyrics, “She could ride my face, I don’t want nothin’ in return / Her body count and who she fuck ain’t never my concern.” Later, he shouts out his friend and close collaborator, the late Virgil Abloh, by rapping, “Virgil my chaperone, he look out from overhead.”

Another line, “If you don’t know my daughter name, then we ain’t really (dogs)”, had fans going crazy wondering if Tyler just revealed he had a daughter but in a now-deleted tweet he addressed the speculation by writing, “I don’t have kids and I don’t plan on it hahaha.”

Are you listening to Tyler's deluxe album when it drops?

Weigh in by clicking an option below

Login or Subscribe to participate in polls.

Jay-Z Helped Damson Idris Secure His Green Card

Damson Idris can easily pass as an American, whether he’s playing Franklin in Snowfall or Khalid in Swarm, his British accent is undetectable. In a new interview with Complex, he reveals how Jay-Z helped him legally become a US resident by being a reference for his green card.

“Hov didn’t offer that up. I had to ask him, but he’s done many things for me over the years. He’s always supported me. He supports everyone. He supports so many people that you don’t even know. Like, genuinely I should tell everyone this right now: If you ever run into Jay-Z, just say thank you and keep it moving because he is definitely a pioneer of the culture, but of everything,” Idris said.

Hov also doubles as Idris’ Carbone plug 🍝 He said the rapper has secured him a last-minute reso to the popular Italian restaurant in Miami on a few occasions.

When asked about his relationship with Lori Harvey, he had one word to say: great. If you’re in need of a drinking game, take a shot every time someone says great in the video clip from the interview.

Why You Should Listen to 6lack’s ‘Since I Have A Lover’ Album

How does that make you feel 6lack? This is a question the Atlanta artist is familiar with and answers 19 times on his new album Since I Have A Lover. In the five-year hiatus since his last album, East Atlanta Love Letter, 6lack dipped, got himself a therapist, unpacked trauma, renounced toxicity, enjoyed the virtues of healthy love, and came back to share what he’s learned.

It’s not the toxic Since I Hate Love album that break-up boys everywhere have been waiting for but it’s the album they need.

There are glimpses of the version of 6lack that once said “if you love me better fuck me like you ‘bout to lose your place to the girl next door” on “Loaded Gun” but it’s grounded by his newfound self-awareness that feeling good comes from a much deeper place of addressing your problems rather than running onto the next lover.

6lack recently told Complex that the most fruitful tools, on his journey to be a better version of himself, have been practice and consistency. When he slips up, he remembers that tomorrow is another opportunity to try again.

His hope for the album is that people can apply it to their own life and find upliftment, hope, resilience…etc whenever they need it.

Similar to Kendrick Lamar’s redemption album, Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers, 6lack beautifully writes his wrongs in his own melodic style and displays the same pockets, flows, and cadences that made me a fan of his music in the first place.

There’s toxic music everywhere, particularly in hip-hop and R&B, and I’m the first person to blast a new Future song, but creating a body of work that encapsulates your personal growth, displays your unique musicality, has incredible production, and is atmospheric—now that’s an achievement worth talking about.

Find all the reasons I can’t stop talking about SIHAL and the standout songs on repeat, below.

“Remember when it was all black and white / I’m nothing like I was when I first dropped / Cause I would hate to do the same thing twice / I had to learn being stubborn was a vice / I had to pick apart the trauma in my life” 

Inwood Hill Park (Listen on Spotify & Apple Music)

On the album’s second track, 6lack addresses his past and present, with a flow that bounces on an infectious beat. The black and white is a reference to his first album cover, Free 6lack, and the lyrics are a far cry from the tortured artist introduced to the world in 2016.

“Get rid of that strife / Update your life on some IOS shit / Came three times ain’t gotta buy your ass shit”

Fatal Attraction (Listen on Spotify & Apple Music)

Sonically, this song hits the melodic pockets that I love 6lack for and lyrically he balances ego with humility. It delivers audacious one-liners that activate your own ego but the overall message is that fatal attraction can exist within a mutual and non-destructive love.

“Learning to say what I feel instead of a blow up / I’m tryna grow up / Ain’t gonna flip it and act like you trippin’ it’s time that I own up”

Spirited Away (Listen on Spotify & Apple Music)

6lack admits he’s a work in progress. He may not be where he wants to be yet but he’s also not where he was. The dichotomy between learning and unlearning, admitting his flaws and transgressions, over an orchestral beat with airy guitar strings and psychedelic background vocals that sound like voices in your head, is what makes this song land for me.

“But I’m Chrisean, I can’t leave the blue face alone”

Preach (Listen on Spotify & Apple Music)

This is the most rap we get from 6lack on the album, I’m waiting for him to make a whole rap album (which he says he’d like to) because he can body a flow just as hard as any Atlanta rapper. It's still conscious rap but a welcome change of pace from the soft R&B side he leans into elsewhere and I had to highlight the Chrisean wordplay because cmon 💀 

Samples & Features

“Temporary” with Don Toliver is by far the best feature of the album. It’s transcendental, the melodies are melodying, and it underpins real love with the temporary euphoria that dissipates with detachment—6lack has learned to discern between the two. Listen on Spotify & Apple Music.

“Talkback” triggered that muscle memory when I know I’ve heard a melody or chord progression before and much like Yung Bleu’s “You’re Mines Still”, which is the familiar sound I couldn’t shake, it samples Sting’s 1993 song “Shape of My Heart”.

6lack said he uses “Talkback” when he needs to remember his purpose and get closer to himself, or the source—it’s rife with religious lyrics. Listen on Spotify & Apple Music.

Soundbytes & Diary Entries

The byproduct and learnings of therapy shine through on the album’s outros. Namely, “Playing house”, “Talkback”, “chasing feeling”, “Talk”, and Wale’s feature on “Stories in Motion”. The spoken word feels like a diary entry or a voice note recorded as a reminder for 6lack when his path feels foggy or he’s tempted to regress.

The “chasing feeling” outro is the strongest reminder that growth comes from making the conscious and consistent choice to sit in the uncomfortable and hope that each time it gets a bit easier. Listen on Spotify & Apple Music.

What are your first impressions of 6lack's new album?

Weigh in by clicking an option below

Login or Subscribe to participate in polls.

Want to win $100 cash? Leave a review and rating in the poll below 💸 

Select a rating and drop 1-2 sentences about why you enjoy our newsletter in the “additional feedback” section of the poll. Be sure to click “continue” to ensure your answer is recorded.

1x poll review = 1x giveaway entry. If you’d like to double your chances, tweet @rap and tell us why you enjoy our newsletter for a 2x entry. Giveaway ends on April 15th.

What did you think of today's edition?

Login or Subscribe to participate in polls.