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And The Grammy Goes To... · Hip-Hop Now Podcast

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Coming up on this week's episode of hip Hop Now podcast, an AI song
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gets submitted for the Grammys. There's a leaked Kendrick Lamar's song this and a
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bunch of rappers, and Diddy gives bad boy artists back their publishing. You
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know I'm gonna say it. Take that, Let's do it. Welcome to
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hip Hop Now Podcast. Hip you from the future. You go to do?
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Show ass out of my back. Don't disrespect the leg leg hip hop
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heady steady. Let's get right into the business. What up, y'all?
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I am yos Vegas and this is hip Hop Now Podcasts, a podcast design
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specifically to keep you caught up on all things hip hop music and culture that
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happened throughout the week. Big shout out to the Patreon supporters over at patreon
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dot com slash hip hop Now. If you would like to join the squid
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odd and get some access, some early access, and honestly get some say
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so in the content that will hit this platform very very soon, visit that
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link that's in the description of this episode. Big shout out to hip Hop
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dx dot com, All hip Hop dot com, dj booth dot net,
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and a couple of places where I'm getting some of these stories from Let's get
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right into the business. So apparently a AI generated song was submitted for a
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Grammy here, this is coming from Variety ghostwriters Heart on My Sleeve. The
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AI generated song mimicking Drake and the Weekend was submitted for a Grammy. And
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all I'm seeing here also is that AI track that's now being considered for two
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Grammy Awards. So they submitted for two different categories to be nominating. Now
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on this very show, I did a whole special about AI and the possibilities,
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and just to sum it up for you who probably hasn't seen it,
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maybe I'll link it at the end of this video. The fact that people
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were like writing lyrics and putting different artists on the same song like Michael Jackson
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and Biggie and all of that and it sound like him. Then there was
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what was there was Timberland with his Biggie song, like you get to work
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with him? Like no, you don't, You're working with AI, and
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and what else was there? I mean, there was just so many things
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with AI and the use and the popularity, and I kind of talked about
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how there could be some benefits for maybe individuals like right, if you can't
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really rap like that, you know what I'm saying, but your man could
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write, put it in your voice while I collaboration. It opens up a
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whole different category. And then most recently there was Beanie seagu and DC saying
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that they were going to use AI for their voice. Now, before we
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get into this, that part I don't mind as much because the DC lost
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his voice years ago and it kind of it basically put a stop to a
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very extremely promising career. He had a I mean, he had a classic
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on his hand with his first album and there was nothing like it, and
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they got an unfortunate accident. Same thing with Beanie Seagull. Beanie segel was
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the guy fought a minute, and you know he wound up getting shot and
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he wound up losing I think a long ago whatever it is. And when
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you hear him now, you hear him featured on records, it just doesn't
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hit the same because it's not the Beanie you remember, you know what I'm
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saying. It's just it's just not it takes away something from him. Well,
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now with AI, he can correct that. You know, he can
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have you can hear him as he once was But what I like about the
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DNC and Beanie Seagull situation versus other situations is the fact that both of these
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guys are still here and it's them writing it. You feel me sure they
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don't get to really perform it. AI is doing that, but I really
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don't care, because if you tell me Beanie Siegel wrote all those rhymes and
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now they're in his original voice, I'll take it. The implications of a
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no name person, I'm just gonna say no name, but basically, well,
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let me not say that an operator of AI generating a record featuring the
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voices of Drake in the weekend and having a goal to enter it into the
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Grammys for a nomination, and even having it considered by the Grammy Board,
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which I don't know how they feel. I don't know what they're gonna say,
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what they're gonna do. I don't know if they're gonna establish a rule
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that keeps AI out of contention. I think I think they should to a
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point, for example, not saying that Benie Seagull and the DC are gonna
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get any Grammy Awards. But if what they do it's so good and they
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wrote it, you have to make you have to make concessions for stuff like
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that, right, the artist behind the music, but a random guy like
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having me sit there and sample Drake's voice and submit it for a Grammy,
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Like there's something missing there, like I gotta pay for that likeness or something,
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you know what I'm saying. Or there's a credit. You know,
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I'm a producer of it, but there's a credit that goes to these voices.
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Because as much as people may stand on the side and look at celebrities
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and say, oh, what they're mad for You're rich or you're already successful,
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or this helps you, no, it don't because when you're a celebrity,
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you are fighting for your image. You fighting for everything, regard your
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image every second of every moment. And in today's day and a especially with
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this AI stuff, it's like, I don't know, you gotta be extra
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guarded. I mean, you see some of it happening with the actors strike,
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Right, there's a whole line of business that just emerged with streaming that
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you know, I don't want to get too deep into it, but you
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know, the big Hollywood ain't trying to give up any bread. And it's
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the same issues the record, not the record industry, but artists, artists
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had with Spotify. So again talking about AI and all that stuff in the
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Grammys, it's put it this way, it's too soon. I think songs
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should be considered, but I think something like this is just way too weird.
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When you have two huge artists who vocals are featured on this record and
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they had played no role in the creation of it. Something's not right about
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that random dude just in the crib ain't two k and drinking mound dew or
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something. So I don't know, we'll see. There is a Kendrick Lamar
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disc record that leaked from the Damn album. It was I guess it was
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the original version of the song Element, and it features Kendrick dis and a
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number of artists for different reasons. Now we say this, and I heard
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some of it, it sounded more like defending himself, right like, because
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he made a lot of He had a lot of bars about, you know,
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winning Grammys and how people were feeling and how people talked about his music.
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And there were plenty of times where I think Meek Mill had called Kendrick
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a widow, and I was like, Damn, I ain't Kendrick ain't never
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say anything back, but he did. We just didn't hear it till now.
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So this leak from the Kendrick Lamar votes, he this is direct shots.
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According to Let's Just read Hip Hop dx dot com, it's a shout
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out to them Kendrick Lamar and loads on Big Sean J Electronica and French Montana
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on leaked song. Kendrick Lamar's votes have sprung the leak and a song containing
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direct shots at Big Seawan, j Electronic and French Montana has surfaced on line.
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The track, which circulated on social media on Thursday, September seventh,
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Off You from the Future, You already heard it, though you already heard
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the responses, gets your wives out of here whatever appears to be an unreleased
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version of Pandemic. Okay, so that's the record I added wrong from TDS
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twenty eighteen Black Panther soundtrack. If this is true, I can see why
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they took it off, because why are you rapping like that on there?
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Put that on your album? Uh, let's see we get some bars.
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Oh, here's something we're gonna We're gonna read some of these bars and then
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we're gonna get out f subliminals. I put you on the road called French
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Montana speaking on me in interviews, very cynical, dry, hating something I
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don't approve. Jay Electronica put silences on my Grammy night. Another dead prophet
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hoping the god or give him life. Oh I like that one. I
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like that one. Jay Electronica will probably respond because what else is he doing?
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And this is a couple of bars about Big Sean. Then we out
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Big Sean keeps sneak dissing. I let it slide. I think his false
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confidence got him inspired. I can't make them respect you, baby, It's
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not my job. Finally, famous for who you date? Now? Who
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you rhyme boy? Oh okay, here's my take number one. I'm hoping
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this isn't a AI trick from someone else claiming it's a leak, because it's
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very possible. Those AI tracks are so convincing. It's very possible if you
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give it. The context of this is from the vote as old as people
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will believe it. Second, Kendrick can come out and claim it's AI and
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it could be real. Will he do that? I don't know. I
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don't think so, but you never know, you know, you just never
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know. But if it's real. I think it's cool. Now. I
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know I'm a Kendrick Lamar fan, but I'm also a fan of some of
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the guys he's talking about. And at this time, you know, I
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knew there was a few dudes who were hating on Kendrick, right because you
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didn't really see Kendrick starting the mess. You just saw people hating the fact
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that everybody was so excited about Kendrick Lamar's music, and it was typically people
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who either had some insecurities or weren't doing as well as him. Obviously,
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they entitled to their own opinions, but I always wondered why Kendrick never really
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addressed some of them, and I thought he was just taking a higher row.
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If this is real, Well, he was not. He was with
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the smoke obviously, and honestly, it's we used the term dis and I
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think some of them was shots, and I think others are just responses to
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what was said about him, and it's his thoughts, and I think,
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honestly, I think it would have added to that album, which was already
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dope. So even though it was supposed to be on this sound track Black
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Panthers, so I think on there it would have been. It definitely would
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have been out of place. But on the album Shit Why Not and today's
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rap game, you kind of want the battles as a fan and it's exciting.
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Or sometimes it can drag down the momentum of what you're trying to do
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as far as like an artist and the music and the relationships, and sometimes
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the people you do business with get spooped because now they feel like they can't
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put Kendrick on the same show as a Drake or a Big Sean or meek
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Male, or it becomes limited because they think at East Coast West coast thing
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is going to happen. And when I say that, I don't mean like
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these guys are from the East Coast and West Coast. I mean what happened
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with Biggie and Tupac, even though it wasn't a direct result of what played
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out in the media, it was looked at as such big time after that.
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I mean they would they would put any rap thing on a cover of
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a newspaper just because it was selling. So it's it's cool, you could
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check it out. It's around. It is Kendrick sounds like him, you
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know, it could be Ai, who knows but it sounds like him,
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so check it out. And lastly, so recently, it got out that
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Mace had received, finally got his publishing back from Bad Boy Records, from
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Diddy or Love or whatever he calls himself today, and you know, there
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was a little conversation about that, like, okay, boom, he got
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his publishing back, Boom boo boom, good, good for him. But
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then it came out that Diddy gave publishing back to Mace, the locks Biggie
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basically Bad Boy artists, especially from back in the day, and there was
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a lot of conversation around it, and I'm just going to I'm not even
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gonna spend too much of your time or mine on it, but let me
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say this first of all, as an executive at this point in your career,
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to do something like this that doesn't get done at all, give all
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the artists they're publishing back is unheard of. It is. I don't care
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if I'm on Bad Boy and my publishings were for a dollar, that doesn't
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mean I can't go flip it and make my you know, my catalog relevant
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again, so my publishing will look better, just doesn't. So obviously,
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kudos and ditty for that. But I know there are a lot of fans
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of hip hop who see Diddy as the poster child for bad industry deals.
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You should know that he is one of many, and it did not begin
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in the nineties, and it's on your other favorite label too. Very seldom
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do you see situations where there's some sort of parody or all the artists on
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they publishing. That's how I do. Some artists willingly sell their publishing when
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they sign because they don't know. All they see is the money. They
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don't know the potential, and they're not thinking about the future. A lot
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of times that's not really on the exact right, Like the Devil was like,
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yo, sign sign your life over for twenty stacks and you starving.
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You might do it just so you can have that money, you know what
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I'm saying, Because maybe you don't care as much. But then later on
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you can't get mad because you made a decision right, you didn't walk it.
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You don't even have to take deals that don't look good. You don't
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have to take them. You don't have to take them. Even back then,
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you do not have to take them. There's nothing that says because you're
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poor or whatever that you have to take a bad record deal. You do
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not. But there are exacts and did He's one of them who No,
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you're gonna take it. They know you're trying to get out of your situation,
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they know you could use that money, and so they do that.
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But in that moment, you have to be spart enough to at least negotiate
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something for your future. And with this, obviously every artists and catalog from
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Bad Boy's heyday it's probably not worth no crazy amount of money. A lot
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of it was probably devalued by Diddy himself, right, the things that they
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learned about him, right, and and just bad relationships with his artists in
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that way. Right. So even though someone like a Mark Curry, Curry
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who you know, had a lot to say about it, doesn't see it
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as a big deal, it kind of still is. Man, It's just
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nobody nobody does that in the record industry. Now, if you're publishing is
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two cents, you get a check. I mean, I'm sure the Tories
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BIG's state things very different from Mark Curry. I'm just saying, it's all
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about what you can do with it. Now, if there's other money,
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he's old, that's a different conversation. And I'm not saying Mark Curry is
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wrong at all, but there could have been ways to to rectify it.
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Right. I think about how sick Black Rob us and how he needed help,
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and he probably needed financial help and influence and all this stuff, but
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it was too late. I think in this day and age, if Black
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Rob had his publishing and put out of you know him or people around and
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put out a campaign that basically said, hey, look this man needs some
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help. To go fund me, this and that, but also run his
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music up man, go buy it, go stream and go do everything,
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but buy merch whatever, Black Rob everything for whatever he could sell the publishing,
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his publishing would be worth more because I think people more willing to help
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in those regards because of big industry stuff. Now I'm just spitballing. I
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don't know. They could be parts of that that I'm missing. What I'm
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just trying to say is it's all about what you do with it. When
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you own your own catalog, you own your own publishing, it is up
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to you to increase that value. Right, Nas and jay z value for
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their catalog and publishing it is probably astronomical if you ask me, because of
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what they're doing now, right nas dropping on these dope albums. You think
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people just go back and listen to the hit boys stuff. People like the
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hit boy stuff, and they go back and listen to a lot of his
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classic stuff. You know, they run back his whole catalog, they do
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videos on it and stuff like that. So he raises the profile and value
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of his catalog, his activity, you know. And that's what it all
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depends on. Right. So if someone like Faith Evans now has her publishing
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rights, well it's up to her to find ways to raise the awareness and
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the value of what she's done so that people go back and rebuy or buy
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her old stuff, discover it and buy it and whatever. So then the
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value goes up. And for whatever a person situation is, then you go
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from there because there are people who and I'm not saying did he continue,
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because we don't know who's rights he so liked. He still own Craig Max
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publishing rights. You know, who does that go to? What is that
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worth today? It might not be worth nothing really, but again it's all
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about what's what you do to raise the profile, especially in a day and
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age where you don't have to have as much money and resources to do it.
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Just having access to the Internet and know how as it relates to social
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media and everything else. Sometimes that's enough, right, that's enough. How
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many times have we seen people I'm getting on soapbox? How many times have
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we seen people get their fame up based off of the Internet. Lord Jamal,
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you could have never told me Lord Jamal would just be known for talking.
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This is Lord Jamal from Brand New Being. I didn't even know that
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much about him until he started appearing on shows, and now he got his
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own show. So while I applaud Diddy for doing something that most record labels
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will not do, they don't care if your catalog is worth zero. Their
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thought is, at some point people can get really nostalgic or new generation can
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just discover your music and buy it up and they will own the publishing and
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it'll be money. It's like a stream. So that's the potential. Okay,
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all these bad boy artists own their publishing. Now, fans, the
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tractors of ditty, Now it's your job to help them, help them raise
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the profile. Mace is raising his profile with the show with Cameron, so
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it Mace doesn't really have a Mace may have like two albums now I think
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now, I think about it, but nevertheless, know what to do with
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it. That's the bottom line. Know what to do with it, and
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fans, now it's your time to support in any way you can. So
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if you see any one of these artists with some kind of new energy based
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off of their old stuff, their old catalog, whatever they're telling you to
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do, showed up something crazy, do it if it's by it and you
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want to support, if it's stream it, whatever it may be. Help
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them out because at the end of the day, all Diddies did was give
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them a potential lifeline, considering everybody ain't rich, you know, everybody,
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everybody not getting what Mace will get or what Biggie's of State will get.
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Even the Locks, right, like that album wasn't great, but the Locks
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raise their profile and they know what to do. So we'll see that's gonna
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do it for me. You can follow me on Instagram, Twitter, and
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TikTok at Vegas World I n C and check out more from this podcast,
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not only in audio form, available on all podcasts and platforms, but also
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on YouTube. Subscribe check out the videos. Check out my last video.
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My last video was about basically ranking Nazis catalog today and including the King's Disease
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and Magic series and where they land. People tend to seem to like it,
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so you go check it out. Until next time, y'all. I'm
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not a critic, I'm a fan. Peace,