DMX Fans Slam Label for Releasing "Disrespectful" AI-Assisted Posthumous Music

His latest two singles allegedly took old vocal recordings and enhanced them with AI

Photo courtesy of @shotbyjacques

BY Ben OkazawaPublished Dec 21, 2023

Since DMX died of a cocaine-induced heart attack in 2021, his team has shared a number of posthumous releases, including a lone full-length effort Exodus.

Recently, his label X-Ray Records — which operates under the Cleopatra Records umbrella and has represented hip-hop acts including Coolio, Afroman and Vanilla Ice — has dropped a pair of AI-assisted singles and, in doing so, outraged the late rapper's fans. 

"DMX's label is releasing new DMX songs made with AI on Spotify," one X (formerly Twitter) user wrote. "Bro this is so disrespectful, especially when the artist isn't even alive anymore ... It's not even good AI. You can tell it's not DMX." 
 

According to a blog post by Ghost Cult Mag, the vocals are a blend of archived recordings (similar to John Lennon's on "Now and Then") that have been "crafted and perfected with the aid of cutting-edge AI software." 

Fans aren't buying it, though — under the official release of the latest AI-assisted DMX track, "Silent Night," on Cleopatra's YouTube account, commenters claimed, "No way would [DMX] make this record alive," and accused the label of having "no shame."

Check out "Silent Night" in full below. 

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