Timbaland. Photo by Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images.
Timbaland has teased a new track featuring a generative AI performing in the style of the Notorious B.I.G. over one of the Virginia producer’s beats. He shared a snippet of the song in a Wednesday Instagram reel, expressing excitement for a collaboration that had eluded him in the physical world made possible with the power of technology.
“We know that it’s a lot of talk about AI, and we know how the feelings of violating certain things… But let me tell you something,” Timbaland explains in the reel. “I got a solution, we’re working on it. It’s gonna be beneficial to everybody. But, in the meantime, I gotta share something I’ve been working on because I always wanted to do this and I never got a chance to. I always wanted to work with Big, and I never got a chance to, until today! It came out right! Play!”
Timbaland is not the only artist to get excited about generative AI’s potential in the music space in recent weeks. Grimes gave producers the go-ahead to make music using AI models of her voice last month. And over the weekend, she launched one such service. Even Liam Gallagher has responded positively to the use of his AI-generated vocals recently.
Not all artists are celebrating their AI clones, however. “heart on my sleeve,” a track featuring AI-generated Drake and The Weeknd vocals was removed from digital streaming platforms in April after Universal Music Group demanded it be taken down.
