Ice Cube, considered one of the forefathers of modern hip-hop, has warned that he will sue any artificial intelligence creator who makes a song based on unauthorized reproductions of his voice without paying for it.

The South Central Los Angeles native came out against the fast-growing trend of AI-generated songs during an interview on the “Full Send Podcast” on May 19.

Podcast co-host Kyle Forgeard asked Ice Cube if he’d heard the reproduction of Drake and The Weeknd’s AI-generated “Heart on My Sleeve,” which went viral.

“I don’t wanna hear an AI Drake song,” Ice Cube responded. “Yeah, I don’t wanna hear that bullshit. He should sue whoever made it.”

Tristan Bove, a writer for Fortune, points out that hip-hop is an art form famously based on preexisting material. The “earliest rappers would rhyme over pastiches of vinyl records with certain breaks repeated on a loop,” Bove wrote, comparing the practice to the trend of using generative A.I. to reproduce famous artists’ voices and musical styles.

Drake and The Weeknd label owner Universal Music Group invoked copyright violation in April to get platforms to take “Heart on My Sleeve” down.

It “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,” the company said in a statement shared with NPR.

AI has advanced to the point where the technology can quickly create new songs like “Heart on My Sleeve” that sound like they’re the work of real artists.

When a podcast co-hosts told Ice Cube,“A.I.’s coming for you too, bro,” Ice Cube repeated his warning to A.I. makers.

“And I’mma sue the muthaf**ka who made it and the people and the platform who play it,” he said. “It’s like a sample, you know what I mean? Somebody can’t take your original voice and manipulate it without having to pay.”

The rise of creative artificial intelligence is a threat to musicians and artists, Bove wrote. “It sounds a lot like the common practice of sampling in hip-hop’s golden age in the 1970s, ’80s, and ’90s. Sampling is a common practice in the music industry, when one artist completes their work with a digital piece of another sound recording, or a sample, which can be produced by a different artist.”

“Sampling was foundational to hip-hop,” Bove continued. “Early hip-hop artists created the genre by pulling together samples from jazz, rock, and funk songs.”

Ice Cube’s hip-hop group N.W.A sampled several oldie funk and soul songs in its debut album “Straight Outta Compton,” Bove wrote. 

But he pointed out that while many samplings are used with permission from copyright holders, several instances taken without permission have been deemed acceptable under fair use laws. 

Ice Cube is not a fan of creative generative AI.

“I think AI is demonic,” he said. “I think there’s gonna be a backlash because of AI. I think people are gonna want things organic and not artificial.”

Images: Ice Cube performs at Riot Fest, Sept. 18, 2022, in Chicago. (Rob Grabowski/Invision/AP) / Possessed Photography on Unsplash
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