Jay-Z Orders Takedown Notice Against YouTube ‘Deepfakes’ of him Rapping Hamlet and Billy Joel Tunes

Well, Jay-Z is very guarded about his intellectual property. His likeness, his voice. According to The Guardian, Roc Nation has issued takedown notices against the videos which use the technology of artificial intelligence to present his audible likeness. The videos targeted was one featuring a Jay-Z cover of Hamlet’s “to be or not to be” and Billy Joel’s “We Didn’t Start the Fire.”

The YouTube channel Vocal Synthesis, made by an anonymous creator, says that Roc Nation filed the copyright notice that summarizes a claim of the channel’s improper use of AI technology to emulate the 4:44 rapper’s voice.

“This content unlawfully uses an AI to impersonate our client’s voice,” the notice says.

Creative Commons, an international nonprofit that offers free copyright licenses for creators, argues that the copyright system is not sophisticated enough to acclimate with digital media. “It is ill-advised to force the application of the copyright system – an antiquated system that has yet to adapt to the digital environment – on to AI.”

In a deepfake YouTube video using the voices of Barack Obama and Donald Trump, the Vocal Synthesis channel said they had no malicious intentions with the Jay-Z impersonations and were “disappointed” with Jay-Z and Roc Nation by the takedown notice.

So far, no official comment has been made by Jay-Z and Roc Nation.